Playing God
by Kelsbury
Summary: When 1999 is filled with torment, fear and Death at every corner, Hermione is given a mission, one that could potentially save the Wizarding World: Save Sirius Black.
1. The Task

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own_

**Playing God**

**Chapter One**

**December 30****th**** 1999**

The wind gently tugged on Hermione curls as she leant against the oak tree, hands buried in the secret pockets of her black dress, her heels very slowly sinking into the mud as her brown eyes fastened on something in the distance – a messy haired boy, with bright green eyes and a lightning bolt shaped scar was sat, hunched over on the ground, his hands curled into fists beside him. Harry Potter had just buried another friend, and they were really taking there toll on the 'Boy who lived'.

Hermione shook her head and walked tentatively foreword, her hand reached out in a calming manner before her as she approached the boy…Well no, Harry was nearly twenty years old – he was a man now.

"Harry?" She asked hesitantly, placing her hand soothingly on his shoulder. He tensed up, his muscles going rigid, but he didn't pull away and for that, she was thankful. "Harry, are you ready to go?" The two of them had been there in the graveyard for over five hours and Harry had just been sitting there, at Dean Thomas' headstone and Hermione was leaning against the tree.

"Go?" He asked hoarsely, his voice sounded grated and hoarse and Hermione saw that his eyes were glistening with tears. "Go where?"

Hermione closed her eyes, feeling her best friend's pain and she bent at the waist, pressing her lips to the top of his head instinctively. "Home, Harry." She whispered, her eyes darting involuntarily to a headstone a few feet away, and the names engraved into the marble haunted her nightmares.

"Home?" He asked, blankly, not moving from his position on the cold, hard ground. "I don't have a home." His eyes, too, trailed the familiar path to the Headstone and he whimpered slightly in his throat – Hermione hated hearing her best friend in so much pain and she crouched beside him, hooking her arms around his shoulders and pulling him closer. He sniffed violently and tucked his head in the crook of her neck, but he did not cry. Harry Potter hadn't cried since October 31st 1998. The day that Ginny Weasley was slaughtered.

"I don't think I know how to live, anymore Hermione." He whispered into her skin, his hold around her waist almost painful as he huddled closer, seeking comfort like he had done so many times before, but she could tell in the way his hand rubbed her back slightly that he was also offering comfort.

Harry hadn't been the only one who had lost a love on that day.

With a shaky sigh, they both stood up as one, clutching to the other tightly to regain their balance and they apparated out, Hermione feeling constricted, as if someone had placed a tight rubber band around her ribs and her vision flashed before her and Harry hit solid ground and her lungs expanded painfully. They appeared at Shell Cottage and Hermione smiled at the derelict building and together, she and Harry slowly made their way up the path overgrown with weeds to the house.

Harry looked at Hermione thoughtfully, but Hermione knew that he wasn't thinking of her, she just happened to be there. "I'll see you later, Hermione." He said quietly and disappeared up the rickety stairs to his room. Hermione sighed as she watched him go quietly and sighed heavily, moving her tired body through to the front room where she wasn't surprised at all to see Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin and Severus Snape huddled around the old dusty coffee table, whispering to each other in harsh tones.

"It isn't fair on her – despite her age she's just a child." Remus whispered, a frown on his old face as he stared down Severus, who looked unfazed by the potential threat that the werewolf possessed.

"Of course it isn't fair, but it has to be done. She is the only logical choice and Potter could use the stability –"

"She offers him the stability!" Remus said angrily, slamming his fist down on the coffee table and Hermione wondered how neither of them had noticed her presence yet, seeing as how she wasn't particularly hiding.

"Since birth? Come on, Remus, you know the answer and this is it. Besides, she might not be against it." Severus said calmly.

Dumbledore chuckled and his fingertips touched lightly in front of him as he leaned back slightly in his chair. "Why not ask her yourself." He said softly and cocked his head to the side. Instantly two sets of eyes jumped to her, one set a golden brown and the other a deep black.

Hermione felt a slight twinge of nervousness, that was of course absolutely ridiculous and she shook if off mentally, stepping further into the room. "What do you want me to do?"

"It's not what we want you to do, Miss Granger." Severus Snape said, standing swiftly, his black robes billowing slightly. Despite the fact that Hermione was almost twenty-one, Severus still spoke to her as if she were a student. "It's what we need you to do."

Hermione's deep brown eyes flickered from Severus to Remus and Dumbledore before gathering the famous Gryffindor courage.

"And what would that be?" She asked, slightly hesitantly – she had no idea what they were going to ask of her and, even more so, she was unsure that she could even do it.

Dumbledore stood and walked towards her, his bright yellow robes billowing around his ankles as he crossed the room and he placed his hand delicately on her shoulder, offering reassurance. "We need you to go back in time, to the year 1980 to save Sirius Black."

Hermione blinked at them vacantly, wondering if she'd heard them correctly. "I'm sorry, what?"

"This buffoon thinks that you are the key." Remus said from where he was still sat on the couch, his hands locked together with his elbows resting on his knees.

"The key to what?" She asked wearily, her brain working a hundred miles an hour.

"To saving Harry." The words that Severus said seemed to flick a switch in her brain and her thoughts instantly jumped to her best friend – he was dying inside and there was nothing she could do to save him.

Until now.

"But how does saving Sirius help him?" Hermione asked, deciding that she wasn't going to agree to this plan at all until all the details fit into place. "If I'm going back in time, can't I save James and Lily instead?"

Dumbledore sighed and squeezed her shoulder, "unfortunately not – we can change certain situations, but not major ones. Hermione, if you save James and Lily then Harry won't be the chosen one anymore and Voldemort will have raised havoc all those years ago."

"But he's doing that now. If we stop Harry being the chosen one, then he'll be saved." Hermione said, her mind working to come up with a plan.

"From what? A scar? If Voldemort isn't stopped by Harry, then he could have died many years ago, along with hundreds of people who are still alive today." Severus said regrettably, his eyes downcast. "We have to sacrifice the few to save the hundreds and I know that isn't fair, Miss Granger, but it must be done."

Hermione sighed, feeling as if her hopes had just been dashed. "I still don't see the benefit of saving Sirius." She said, rubbing at her eyes tiredly.

"Sirius is Harry's Godfather. If you stop Sirius from going after Peter, then Harry will automatically be given to him – nobody can change that." Dumbledore explained, "then he'll always be there. A constant. Something that Harry needs while growing up, that he never had."

"How exactly am I supposed to stop Sirius?" Hermione asked, "I've seen him angry and it isn't a pretty sight." She said and Severus shook his head, his greasy hair falling into his face.

"You have to get to know him – let him know you." Remus said tiredly, dropping his forehead to rest in his hand. Her brown eyes widened as she knew what was coming next. "You have to let him fall in love with you."

"How on Earth will that help?" Hermione asked, shocked. Sirius was twenty years older then her, and to be honest, her heart was still beating for her past love.

Severus cleared his throat awkwardly, "you see, if he has something to stay for, then he won't try and go after Pettigrew."

"But he did! He had Harry!" Hermione said the prospect of falling in love with Sirius was daunting to her.

"Did he?" Severus asked, "his best friend has just been brutally killed – Sirius knew that someone else would look after Harry if he failed."

"How do you know the same thing won't happen?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows coming together to form a 'v', her confusion evident.

"We don't." Dumbledore said honestly, "but it's worth a chance."

"You don't have to do this, Hermione." Dumbledore reminded her, "you can say no."

A big part of her was so desperate to say no, to go upstairs to her room and pretend that nothing had happened and that she could carry on, mourning her fallen friends and family and carry on defeating Voldemort.

But there was a part of her that kept whispering that it was for Harry, that it would all work out and that she should do anything in her power to help her friend.

"How would I get there?"

"Well, with this." Severus pulled out a small-hand held mirror up for Hermione to see that it was covered up with a black cover. "If you look into this and think of when you most would like to be, it will take you there."

"Sort of like a port-key, miniature version of the Mirror of Erised." Remus told her.

"While it bring me back as well?" Hermione asked.

The three wizards exchange glances amongst each other, their eyes meeting briefly before dancing away. "Miss Granger," Severus started, putting the mirror back into his cloak, "you can never come back."

00000

Hermione wandered the path that her and Harry had been a few hours ago, coming to a stop at the marble headstone that stood majestically in the graveyard and Hermione briefly wondered why it hadn't been torn down by the unfeeling Death Eaters.

She kneeled before it, her hands folded delicately in her lap as she read the first name – Arthur Weasley. She sighed in sadness as she remembered the tall, muggle-loving wizard and her eyes scanned the next name – Bill Weasley. Hermione hadn't been there for the attack on what she considered to be her home, but when she found out a part of her had gone mad with grief. Fred Weasley. Only one of the twins died in the attack last year and the other hadn't come out of his room in Shell Cottage since, locking himself away and becoming isolated from the World. The final name engraved on the stone was Ginny Weasley and Hermione felt the prickles of tears burning her eyes fall over and splash gently onto her cheeks as she lowered her eyelashes, her mind churning with what was to come.

"It hurts you know." Hermione whipped around startled to see Harry and it didn't escape her notice that they were in a role reversion from that morning – Hermione weeping at a grave, Harry leaning against a tree.

"Of course I do." She said sadly and struggled to her feet.

Harry studied her for a moment and his arms crossed over his chest in an attempt to keep the warm in – or to lock Hermione out. "I knew something like this was going to happen." He said sadly, his green eyes starting to mist over, "we shouldn't have left them, Hermione."

"You think I don't know that?" Hermione said, feeling annoyance rush through her veins, "you weren't the only one who lost someone that day, Harry, so don't pretend that you are."

Harry blinked in slight shock and raised his eyebrows slightly, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. "I never said I was."

Hermione sighed and shook her head, clambering to her feet as she wiped her cheeks – her thoughts jumped instantly to everyone she had lost and she had to close her eyes in pain as she thought of him. "I know." She whispered.

Harry breathed out harshly through his nose and slid down the tree, ignoring the scratches against his back. "I don't think I can do this anymore, Hermione. I'm loosing everyone and before I know it, I'll loose you to."

"Harry-" She tried to console him, tell him that she wasn't going anywhere, but he cut her off, saving her from uttering the lie.

"You're a Muggle-Born, Hermione. You're so lucky to have made it this far." He wasn't being cruel, he was just telling her how it was. There was a time when he wouldn't have dared by so brash about something, but as the war loomed over them and they took on responsibilities that they were to young for, they learned to tell the truth and to not take it to be horrible. "I can't loose you to. But I will." Harry shook his head and closed his eyes. Hermione sat next to him and leaned against his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Yes." She whispered as the wind blew through the overhanging branches above her. "You will."

"I know where your going, Hermione. I've heard them talk about it before." Harry whispered, laying his cheek on top of her head.

"I don't know if I'm going yet." Hermione said, twisting the sapphire ring on her finger.

Harry sighed again, his breath ruffling to tops of her caramel coloured curls. "I know you'll go. And I know that you can't save my parents." His voice broke slightly at the end. "But they're right. Sirius might not be my dad, but he's the next best thing. I need him, Hermione. And you'll still be around, I know that. Granted, you'll be twenty years older, but you'll still be there, and I won't loose you."

"Sirius might not look twice at me." Hermione said sadly, her inner fear of failure that had once been her Boggart whispered that she wouldn't succeed on this mission.

Harry shrugged, his shoulders making her head rise slightly, "so try again the next day."

00000

She slept on it that night, tossing and turning as she stared into the dark space before her, Luna snoozing peacefully in the bed to her left and Lavender Brown in the bed to her right. Despite the con's and pro's list that she was building in her mind, she knew that she was going to go back; If she succeeds, it could make this time so much better and they could find a way to defeat Voldemort sooner. Especially with her knowledge, she could stop Voldemort coming back in 1995.

Deciding that she definitely wouldn't be able to sleep, she rose from her bed and padded across the quiet room to the door, slipping out and closing it behind her, the soft click echoing around the corridor. She made her way to the room a few doors down and went in, trying not to disturb the figure on the bed.

"Hey Ron," she whispered, lowering herself in the chair beside him, "long time no see, huh?" her hand reached out and her fingers lightly touched his over the blanket as the little ball of light hovering over the head of the bed flashed a deep green. "I really am sorry I don't see you that often, it just…It's hard." She whispered, tracing patterns on his arm as she stared at him, her mind whirling. "I miss you. I mean, I know you're here, but you're not." She stopped talking and just looked at him – took in his red hair and eyelashes that rested gently on freckled cheeks, blocking her view of his cobalt blue eyes that she had always been able to read so well. "I'll miss you, Ron." She whispered, standing from her chair and bending slightly at her waist, running her hand through his hair as she pressed her lips to his forehead, almost desperately.

She straightened up and ignored the tears that were falling for the second time that day and twisted the ring around her finger.

"I know you can't hear me, Ronald, but I love you. I love you so much it's painful. But I have to go now. Maybe if I do this – I can save you." She said sadly, backing away from the man who hadn't seen her for nearly a year. "I'll never forget you." And with a whirl of her nightdress she was gone and she wasn't looking back, despite how much she longed to.

Hermione spent most of the next day with Remus and he told her about where she could live – there was an apartment free opposite Remus in 1980 that she could rent, there was a job in Flourish and Blotts that she could apply for and there was always a vault open at Gringotts. When she asked how exactly he knew about the job, he flushed slightly and mumbled incoherently, making Hermione wonder about Remus' past life which she hadn't put much thought to before.

"When am I going?" Hermione asked as she watched Minerva McGonagall fold away clothes that she would be wearing in the 80's.

"At the Millennium," Severus told her, his inky black eyes tracking Minerva's movements. "The magic once the century changes will be at its absolute strongest – nothing can go wrong." Hermione nodded, feeling nervous at the prospect of starting a whole new life in a totally different time when she didn't really know anyone.

"And the travel will be safe?" Harry asked from beside her.

"Like a time-turner." Severus assured him and left the room in a whirl of black robes.

There was a silence that fell on the three remaining people in the room, broken only by the shuffling of Minerva folding clothes and moving about. "It's Voldemort's birthday today." Harry said monotonously. Hermione nodded absently and looked up at her friend – she was almost taken aback by the look of pure hate and anger in his bright green eyes, "I don't want him to see another year."

00000

Before Hermione knew what was happening there was thirty minutes to midnight and she, Severus, Albus and Remus were walking briskly through the deserted streets of London – Ever since Voldemort rose to total power in 1998, it was a bad idea for a muggle-born to leave their home – if they even had one. But this had to be done. Ideally, she would have preferred that Harry was by her side, but Harry had as much inequality as her, if not worse, as he was undesirable no. 1.

"I hate not being able to apparate directly there." Remus said angrily, his skin a pasty white colour as they neared the full moon.

"I agree." Professor Dumbledore hummed, adjusting his hat on top of his head to sit at a jaunty angle. "But it is best if we just leave it as it is." Dumbledore warned, "Hermione will most certainly change it."

Hermione felt a pang of unease – what if she failed?

The four fled quickly, ducking into doorways when Death Eaters walked past, on high alert as they made their way to Diagon Alley.

"Is there a reason that we're going there?" Hermione asked as they emerged from a small gap between two shops.

"Yes." Remus whispered, "me, James, Sirius and Peter are down there in a pub called 'Triwands."' He told her and Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Really?"

"Yep. You know it now as Scribbulus Everchanging Inks. It's where Madame Rosmerta started out her career before she owned the Three Broomsticks." He told her. On the other side of Hermione, Severus huffed and rolled his eyes in annoyance – Hermione was kind of glad that they were close to Diagon Alley.

They continued their journey in silence and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when Hermione caught sight of the rickety sign symbolising the Leakey Cauldron.

"Well, here we are." Professor Dumbledore said casually, pushing open the door gently and walking in as if he owned the place, which was an incredibly bad idea.

From inside the pub, shouting and swearing was heard and the window that Hermione was stood next to illuminated with a bright red light.

Hermione reached for her wand, but before she could grasp the handle, something tapped the top of her head hard and it felt as if someone had cracked an egg on her head and the liquid was running down her neck.

"Take this and go through to the alley!" Severus said, pushing the small, hand-held mirror in her hands. Hermione watched as it to, went invisible, disappearing from her view – the extended DISSALLUSMENT charm that Dumbledore had invented a few years ago really worked. "You have to go, now!" He urged, pushing her into the pub and the first thing that Hermione saw was a jet of green light heading towards her.

She reacted instinctively, dropping to the floor and covering her head, hoping and praying that the curse didn't hit Severus or Remus and she tentatively looked up – thankfully, the curse had sailed over their heads and hit the wall behind them, a charred black hole smoking slightly.

Feeling the fear and anxiety that she always did when in battle and she had to stop herself from reaching for her wand, but knew that she couldn't draw attention to herself.

It all suddenly made sense to her, why Dumbledore had casually strolled into the pub and why Hermione was now invisible – they were the distraction. Her suspicions were confirmed when the back door slammed open and a current of Death Eaters ran in, their hoods up, masks on and wands held in front of them.

She knew that she should clamber to her feet and run past them now while she still could, but something inside her was telling her to fight, fight to protect her friends, who were now strictly speaking, a part of her family. But then that would be a waste, they were here to protect her, not the other way around.

She made sure that she had a tight hold on the mirror and rolled to her feet, glancing over her shoulder once to see that all of her friends were still up and fighting, and she ran to the door.

The guilt that she felt for leaving her friends was strong, but it wasn't strong enough for her to turn around – she knew that in them escorting her that they had surely claimed death and it was now her job to fix it, to go back and change it all. The fact that Dumbledore had so much faith and trust in her was scary and thrilling at the same time, but Hermione didn't have time to linger.

She reached the wall to get to Diagon Alley and she knew that this was it – if she grabbed her wand, tapped on the bricks and forced them to open that she would let the Death Eaters know that she was here, so she had to work quickly.

She pulled her wand swiftly from the sleeve of her robes and tapped it on the wall quickly in the right pattern and stepped back and to the side – the bricks suddenly shifted and moved, the noise was instantaneous, deep and rumbling and did what Hermione knew it would do.

A jet of purple light flew towards her and sliced through her skin and she cried out in surprise, almost dropping the mirror to grab at the deep cut, but she knew that she couldn't. She slipped through the slightly open door and ran down the street to Scribbulus Everchanging Inks and whipped around the side alley – she could hear the Death Eater's pounding feet and she could hear Severus and Remus shouting and she tried so hard to not go back, to help them.

Taking a deep breath, feeling her heart race she held up the mirror and looked into it, ignoring her own reflection (the mirror saw everything, whether invisible or not) as she concentrated so hard on the date in her mind – 31st December 1979 11:59pm – one minute to midnight. She concentrated and concentrated, trying not to get distracted by the noise and her desperate thoughts, her brain pulling her in one direction while her heart told her to remain rooted to the floor.

31st December 1979…

31st December 1979…

31st December 1979…

She stared in slight disbelief as the background behind her, which was reflecting the street was shifting and changing from a battle like scene to people cheering and dancing, the dark, ruined shops were slowly rebuilding themselves and they sky, which had a dark grey cloud hovering above England due to the amount of Dark Magic that was being used was slowly clearing up, as if being blown away by a strong gust of wind and Hermione gazed at the twinkling stars.

Suddenly, a loud bang omitted through the air and Hermione jumped a foot in the air as a bright burst of colours lit up the sky and cheering sounded, as if the volume had been turned up. She whipped around in time to see another firework fly across the clear sky and she gasped in astonishment.

No derelict buildings, no fear hiding behind every person, no more pain or torment. Hermione frowned, trying to place the last time that she had seen so many people in one place looking…Happy.

Hermione hadn't expected that at all, the threat of Voldemort must have still existed in this time, but it seemed that people didn't take his power so seriously. The firework display drew her eyes back to the exploding colours and she took a moment, just a tiny moment to admire them before the mirror in her hand, the handle strong and steady, started to seep away, like sand trickling through her fingers. She watched sadly as the only way back home vanished and she sighed sadly.

She breathed in deep and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remember everything that Remus had told her – that Sirius would be easily approachable because he wasn't drunk – he had had to work in the morning. She squared her shoulders and, with a quick glance down at herself to see that she was visible, she headed to the door of the Triwand – after all, she had a mission.

**A/N: **_I'm back! Yes, I know that I promised a sequel for Weight of the World and it's on its way, but I just wanted to write something different, with a different plot and different characters and a different reason – so, here's Playing God. It is in no way tied to Weight of the World and is completely independent from it, but it IS a Hermione/Sirius story (Because I completely love them)!_

_Happy reading!_

_Kelly_

_xxx _


	2. The Meeting

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Harry Potter, though I sincerely wish that I did. _

**Playing God**

**Chapter 2**

**January 1****st**** 1980**

She stepped into the Triwand and was stunned by the cheering and whistling that could be heard, both inside the pub and out. The pub was warm and had a bright orange glow that was pulsing gently from the roaring fireplace to the left of the cosy pub, the candles hovering over their heads and the naked flames flickering in the middle of the table.

"Alright, love?" Hermione turned to the sleazy call and saw a big, square shouldered man with heavy eyebrows and extremely crooked teeth. "Fancy a drink?" He burped and Hermione's lips turned down in disgust and she turned her back to the man in a clear dismissal, her eyes zeroing in on the group of men at a table in the back, laughing and cheering the loudest – Remus was the only one facing her and he caught her eye, raising his eyebrows in slight surprise.

"Ahh, come on, love, your boyfriend will never know…" he trailed off suggestively and Hermione turned back to face him only to discover that he was stood directly behind her, towering over her small, 5ft 2 frame. Hermione knew that he was trying to intimidate her, but Hermione wasn't one to be easily intimidated.

"No, Thankyou." She repeated more firmly, and she saw the spark of anger in his dark brown eyes.

"Oh, I think you will." He growled his hand closing around her upper-arm. She reacted instinctively, years of war engraved into her reflexes and before she could think, her wand was in her hand and a red jet of light flew from the tip and the man was on the floor, his drink rolling from his hands, creating a puddle on the floor of orange liquid.

A hush descended across the pub and Hermione was very aware of all sets of eyes on her, particularly the group sitting by the back and she fidgeted uncomfortably, stowing her wand up the sleeve of her robe.

"Well honey, for that you can have a drink for free!" A younger looking Madame Rosmerta said cheerily, leaning her forearm on the bar, "pull up a bar stool, love." She winked and turned to the back room to get Hermione a much needed Firewhiskey.

"Could I rent a room, please?" She asked tiredly, sipping at the burning liquid.

"Of course you can, honey." Rosmerta said, tapping her hand lightly and Hermione had a flash of a much older Rosmerta, laid out on her bar in The Three Broomsticks, naked and bleeding, her eyes staring ahead unseeing of the blood stains in the ceiling.

"Well, that failed." Hermione looked over her shoulder; a little afraid that she was going to see another drunk guy with no concept of the idea of personal space, but she was shocked to see a tall man with straight black hair that fell into his grey eyes with an elegance that nobody else's could achieve and fell to his broad shoulders which were enclosed in a dark blue button up shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, wearing boot cut jeans that hugged his thighs perfectly and black boots.

Twenty year old Sirius Black was talking to her.

"Erm, I'm sorry?" She asked, a little affected by how handsome she found him and the fact that he was the one who had approached her – the thoughts that entered her mind were a little foreign and felt somewhat forbidden to her.

"Well, I come over to save a damsel from distress turns out she doesn't need a knight." He said conversationally and jumped up onto the seat beside her, swinging it side-to-side like a child, "I'm Sirius Black." He introduced himself, his grey eyes sparkling.

Hermione stared at him for a moment running her finger around the lip of the glass, the musical note long and loud as she thought – should she introduce herself now? She had never been in this position before – she had only ever been with one man while she knew that, at this age, Sirius had been with a fair few more girls.

"Are you okay?" She snapped out of her thoughts at his question and glanced down at her upper arm instinctively. She was a little shocked to see that there was no blood on the sleeve and the cut that the Death Eaters had so nicely given her was no longer there.

"Yes." She answered, not quite honestly, holding out her hand to him. "I'm Hermione."

He took her hand in his, his grip strong and steady and she could feel the slight calluses on his hand.

"Hermione." Her name rolled off his tongue with minimal effort and her heart sped up at the sound of his deep voice.

"Come on, Sirius." Hermione and Sirius turned as one to see James Potter and Hermione almost had a heart attack thinking that it was Harry "we're off to the Hogs Head! Let's go!" He waved his arm once and practically skipped out the pub. Sirius chuckled and shook his head at his friends' antics.

"Is there a reason that you're here by yourself, beautiful." The attention that Sirius was granting her was making her skin flush and her heart race – she didn't like that he was paying so much attention to her already and she felt a little overwhelmed – surely he couldn't be attracted to her?

A picture of Ron flashed in her mind and guilt wound in her stomach. "You're friends are waiting." She said quietly, her eyes downcast.

"They can wait a little longer." He said, resting his arm on the bar and the heels of his boots hooked around the silver bar at the bottom of the stool. "Are you sure you're okay?" He asked again and Hermione's eyes darted to the man, who was still laid flat out on the ground, people not even sparing him a glance as they stepped over him.

"Yeah. Go." She said and she made sure that there was conviction in her tone. He seemed to get the message and hopped off the bar stool and slapped seven sickles on the bar.

"I'll see you around, Hermione." He winked and then he was gone.

Hermione stared vacantly at the space were Sirius had just been and blinked – her brain, which had frozen slightly at the sight of a young Sirius was starting to pick up it's pace again now that he was gone…Maybe she wouldn't fail while she was here.

"Do you want to see your room, honey?" Madame Rosmerta asked and Hermione smiled and nodded, sliding off the seat and following the woman up the stairs to her home for the next few days.

The celebrations for New Year's Day carried on well into the early hours in the morning, but Hermione found it somewhat comforting – that people still celebrated and with that thought in her mind, she drifted off easier then she thought she would have done, exhausted from the travel and lulled into the security that people's happiness brought her.

00000

The sunlight flittering through the gaps in the curtains was not what woke Sirius Black up – instead, it was his wand on the bedside table, whizzing and screaming, flying off the oak wood to poke him in the base of his spine.

He grumbled and rolled onto his back, his head pounding behind his closed eyelids and the wand jabbed him again in the forehead. He cursed his wand and James' ideas for an alarm clock and reached out for the wand, closing his fist around it before it could scream again and burst his eardrums.

He sat up slowly, the sheets pooling around his hips as he rubbed his face with his hands. He swung his feet to the floor and stood up, shuffling to the bathroom, the wand still whistling in his hands.

After his morning shower he felt more awake but he realised that it was a bad idea to get drunk last night – he had done so well as well, lasting till about 1:00am before the jubilant celebrations around him swept over him and he felt like he had to join in.

He grabbed some jeans and pulled them on, reaching for a black button down shirt when he heard a light bang from downstairs. Before he knew it, his wand was in his hands and he was creeping down the stairs, expertly avoiding the creaks in the old wood. His auror instincts had kicked in and he half-expected to see Remus or James shuffling around.

Instead, in the kitchen, he saw a woman. She had her wand held in front of her and Sirius's nose picked up the scent of cooking bacon, but his eyes were focused on the shapely legs that extended from his white button down shirt that she was wearing and her blonde hair tumbled down her back.

He coughed to alert her to his presence and she jumped, the bacon flopping back into the pan. "Oh, you gave me a fright!" She said, holding her hand to her heart and turning to face him – he was trying to place her in his memories, but he honestly had no idea who she was.

She was beautiful though, with her big blue eyes surrounding by long eyelashes, a cute button nose and high cheekbones with a heart-shaped face. "Sorry." He said gruffly, shoving his wand in the back pocket of his jeans, hooking his thumbs into the belt loops.

"It's okay Siri!" She simpered and Sirius blinked – he suddenly had an intense desire to get to work. "I was making breakfast, but I can think of something better to do…" She said suggestively, her wand clattering to the floor as she walked slowly to him, unbuttoning the shirt and letting it slide of her shoulders.

Sirius reacted instinctively, as he did when a female trusted him enough to be naked in front of him, and he reached for her, looping his arms around her waist and pulling her into his body, dropping his lips to hers, and she responded in kind, trailing her hands over his chest and he felt Goosebumps rise on his skin.

The fact that he couldn't remember her didn't stop his actions and he indulged in something that was much better then breakfast.

00000

"You're late." James grinned as Sirius collapsed into his chair and raised his eyebrows at his best friend. "You and Polly have a good time last night?" He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk, linking his finger behind his head.

"We definitely had a good time this morning," he said, grinning himself at the reminder as he ran a hand through his black hair.

James laughed and shook his head, "You're a dog, Sirius, and I mean that metaphorically." James told him, "the amount of women last night was ridiculous."

"I slept with someone else other then Patricia?"

"Polly, and no, but you definitely drew their attention." James smiled and Sirius racked his brain but the only women he could picture were Madame Rosmerta, who he flirted with and a girl with curly brown hair who took out Jacob Gregan.

"What can I say man? The women love me – somebody has to put up with their constant attentions." He said as if it was actually painful for him, but James heard the teasing lint underneath his tone.

"Aww, poor you. Me, I'm perfectly happy with Lily."

"You're only saying that because you have to." Sirius teased and James' hazel eyes sparkled.

"True, but don't tell Lily."

"You're secret's safe with me, dude," Sirius said, reaching across his desk to push James feet roughly back to the floor.

Before James could retaliate, someone knocked on their office door and pushed it open without waiting for confirmation from the pair inside. "Morning. I trust that you had a good New Year." Sirius looked up at the deep voice and grinned at his boss, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Oh, what I can remember was fantastic." Sirius bragged and Kingsley rolled his eyes, folding his arms over his chest. "You know, if you wanna get in the game, boss, I'm sure that there's some girl I could call who –"

He was cut off in his offer to Kingsley when a file was dropped in front of him, opened to display pictures of Jacob Gregan, dead.

"Oh, that's put a damper on my New Year." James said, leaning his forearms on the desk to get a better look of the pictures and his mouth turned down in distaste at the blood.

"I don't think Jacob Gregan is very happy about it either." Kingsley said in a dead-pan way and James nodded in agreement. "I've already alerted his family and close friends. Now I want you to solve it."

"I gathered, boss." Sirius said, reading the file quickly, "time of death, 2:30am – cause of death: strangulation? Really?" Sirius asked surprised. When he first saw the case his initial thought was that it had been a Death Eater that he killed Jacob, but no way would a death eater use muggle-means of killing somebody, especially not a pure-blood enthusiast like Jacob Gregan.

"His family is demanding that this case be solved A.S.A.P. Understood?" Kingsley said with force, looking at each of them in turn.

"Hear you loud and clear, boss." James said, standing to his feet and stretching, his bones popping as his muscles were pulled. "Let's go, Sirius."

"Go?" Sirius asked surprised, dropping the parchment that he was holding with Jacob Gregan's information on it. "Go where?"

"To the Triwand see the pretty brunette you were talking to last night." James told him, reaching for the file.

"Why on Earth are you doing that?" Kingsley asked in annoyance, "you can't honestly be thinking of getting some action now!"

"Dude, I'm happily married." James said in a no-nonsense tone and Kingsley held his hands up at shoulder-height in a peace offering.

"Just get it done." He told them and left their office in a swirl of blue robes.

"Why exactly are we going to see Hermione?" Sirius asked, standing as well, rolling up his sleeves.

"Because, my faithful partner in the quest to stop crime, Hermione took him out – remember?" He said as the two left the office's heading for the apparition points, "and since you remember her name, I think you remember the spell and handiwork that she displayed in taking him out. She's got good duelling skills."

"Yeah, but that was clearly Self-Defence," Sirius said, frowning and James nodded in agreement as he took Sirius' wand out of the back pocket of his jeans.

"And you're doing that…Why?" Sirius asked, grabbing his wand back and roughly pushing his best friend, who went into Damien Saunders, who was walking towards them.

James grabbed his shoulder and apologized, but Damien just laughed it off. "Don't worry, you two have your lover's quarrel – I'm sure it'll all work out." James and Sirius stared after the old man as he rounded the corner out of their sight.

"Well…That was different." James said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Does he think we're gay?" Sirius asked, slightly offended – with the amount of women that he'd been caught with in his office, everyone at the Ministry knew that he wasn't gay. James laughed, throwing his head back.

"Oh, this is priceless!"

"Why does he think we're gay?" Sirius asked, "I'll prove to him that I am not gay, let me follow him –"

"Sirius, don't put your wand in your back pocket." James warned, grabbing Sirius' forearm. "You might blow your buttocks off and we all know that the women wouldn't come back from the desecration of Sirius Blacks lovely backside."

Sirius stared at him for a moment and with a roll of his eyes pushed his sleeves down and stowed his wand up them. "James – it's you talking like that that makes people think that we're gay."

James just winked and twisted, disappearing with a 'pop' and Sirius followed after him, sparing a thought to how many other people thought that him and James were in a relationship.

He spat out ash the second he saw the interior of the Triwand and stepped into the warm pub with Madame Rosmerta behind the bar and a lone goblin at the table to the back.

"Rosmerta! It's good to see you again after less then twenty-fours and can I say that you are looking lovely tonight." Sirius smiled charmingly and leaned across the bar. Rosmerta stopped wiping down the wood and leaned foreword as well and Sirius couldn't help but catch a quick glance at her ample cleavage.

"Keep dreaming, Sweetie," she said in a cunning voice and leaned back again, winking at him. "What you after?"

"We're looking for Hermione, insane curly brown hair, brown eyes, not very tall. She was the one who _stupefied_ Gregan last night." James told her, jumping up onto a bar stool.

"And thank Merlin for that – that man was always bad for my business, sprouting rubbish about how pure-bloods were superior and all that, you know what I'm talking about, Sirius."

"I do and I agree. Do you know where Hermione is now?"

"Yeah, maybe I do." Rosmerta said, carrying on wiping down the bar as the door opened and a scruffy wizard walked in and ordered a butterbeer.

Once Madame Rosmerta served him, she returned back to James and Sirius and Sirius found that he himself was tracking the wizard who didn't seem trustworthy to him and he instantly felt suspicion crawl in his gut. A quick glance to James told him that he felt exactly the same.

"Sorry, sweetheart, but I'm gonna have to star you." Sirius told her.

"Is that dirty talk for –" She was cut off when Sirius pulled a slowly revolving star from his pocket, each point glowing a different colour with the words 'Sirius Black – Auror' was inscribed on the gold metal. "Oh, honey. It's a shame you have to work today."

"I know, but one must suffer for the safety of others. Now, Hermione?" He prompted and Madame Rosmerta nodded, gesturing to the stairs.

"She's up there, renting room 4 for a few days till she gets an apartment and job – I was going to take her today to open up a Gringott's Vault. She shouldn't be carrying so much money on her."

Sirius nodded and stood up straight, a quick eye glance at James told him to stay put - Sirius wanted to interrogate Hermione on his own and James needed to stay down here. The shifty wizard kept glancing at them.

Sirius raised his eyebrows quickly before he went to the stairs and ran up them, getting to room 4. He knocked on the door quickly and the door opened almost as fast.

"Oh – Sirius, right?" She said and stepped back, opening the door further, letting him pass into the drab room.

"That's right, Hermione." He sat down on the edge of the single bed and he bent slightly, his hands clasped between his knees as he gazed at her through his lashes. Hermione shifted nervously and closed the door, leaning on it. "I have to ask you a few questions."

Hermione frowned in confusion, but nodded and sat down on the rickety chair by the desk. "Do you know Jacob Gregan?" He asked and Hermione shook her head.

"No. I don't know anyone around here – I'm very new to this area."

He filed the information away for later, because he was definitely asking Hermione out on a date.

"Why did you attack Jacob Gregan?"

"Atta – Do you mean that man who grabbed my arm?" She asked in disbelief and Sirius nodded, taken the shrunken down files from his pocket and his wand and restored it back to normal size. "He grabbed my arm, had alcohol on his breath and he scared me, okay? It was self-defence." She said with a slight tint of fear in her voice, one that made his natural instinct to protect women flare to life for a moment.

"I know, sweetheart." He said soothingly and put the file on the bed, opening it up to show Hermione the less violent photo's of the dead Jacob Gregan.

"Wait…You think I did this?" She asked, her brown eyes open wide and her mouth dropped open.

"No." He answered honestly, "but I have to ask these questions, seeing as how you did attack him. It's just protocol." He told her and she nodded, though she didn't look happy.

"Why?" She asked, her voice hard and with a forced calm.

"Because it's my job." He showed her the same star that he showed Rosmerta. "And this way, we can take you out of the equation and focus on who really did this. What were you doing at 2:30am?" He asked, knowing that she wouldn't have been awake.

"Sleeping." She answered, confirming his suspicions.

"Alone?" He prompted and she raised her eyebrow at him in a slight challenge and he grinned wolfishly at her.

"Does it matter?" She asked and Sirius wondered if she had been alone of if someone had been up her with her, tangled in the sheets. His thoughts suddenly strayed to Hermione and him between the sheets, like it did with pretty much every woman that he met and he had an instant pull in his stomach telling him that she wasn't one to sleep with someone and then forget it the next morning. Which was a real shame as she was a beautiful young woman.

"It kind of does, yeah." A small, meaningless part of him needed to know.

"Fine. Yes, I was alone." Sirius smiled at the news and then put it to the back of his mind.

"Don't forget, Hermione, this is just for the files. Don't worry about it." She nodded tightly and stood up, reaching for the door-handle. "Well…" He said and she faltered in her actions, "you shouldn't worry if you're telling the truth."

Hermione breathed in harshly, "what do you mean?" She asked tentatively and Sirius smirked to himself – he knew that she posed no threat and he stood and made his way over to her, standing directly behind her, mimicking Jacob Gregan's actions. He bowed his head so that his lips brushed the shell of her ear.

"You weren't scared of Jacob."

"Oh, so you're a mind-reader now?" Hermione said sceptically, turning to face him and his close proximity caused her to tilt her face up to look directly into his eyes and he placed one hand on the door by her head.

"You could say that, yeah. I know that you find me attractive – "

"Is this the right time?" Hermione asked, placing her hands on his chest in a meek effort to push him away, but Sirius knew that she didn't want him to move, just like he didn't want to move away from her.

"All the time is the right time."

A loud bang and crash from downstairs had Sirius moving in an echo of his movements that morning and he pulled his wand from his sleeve, side-stepping expertly around Hermione and throwing the door open easily, practically leaping down the stairs three at the time and barrelling through the door to the pub downstairs, aware of Hermione a few steps behind him as he held his wand in front of him.

He blinked at the scene in front of him, of James slamming the body of the shifty wizard who entered earlier against the wall as he held his wand against his side, blood pouring from a wound in his temple as he breathed heavily through his nose. His hazel eyes flickered up to see Sirius stood there and his whole demeanour changed – now that he knew he had back-up, he could relax and he grinned at his best friend.

"What happened?" Hermione gasped as she saw the blood dripping steadily down the side of James' face.

"Ahh, I just got myself a battle scar – no need to worry!" James chuckled, dabbing hesitantly at the cut as Sirius stowed his wand back up his sleeve and walked over to his best friend confidently and Hermione's brown eyes scanned his frame from behind. The Sirius in 1980 was very attractive, she had to admit. Something odd stirred inside Hermione that felt traitorous to her – she had only ever felt this level of attraction for one person, and a small part of her felt that she was betraying Ron for her feelings towards Sirius, a man that she didn't really know.

She soon hoped to change that.

She'd been brought here for a reason, she thought as she went to Madame Rosmerta to comfort the poor woman who was shaking lightly, her eyes not straying far from Sirius as she watched him attempt to heal the wound that James bore, but he just kept laughing, dodging his best friends attempts as together, they tied the unconscious man to a chair, his head lolling foreword as his chin rested on his chest.

"Is there a reason he's now unconscious? Because if I have to fill out some paperwork because of this…" Sirius teased lightly, but Hermione could tell from Sirius' taunt muscles and hard eyes that he was incredibly angry that James had been attacked.

"Huh?" James asked distractedly, pushing his glasses back up his nose, "yeah, he killed Gregan."

Sirius stared blankly at him for a moment before a huge grin pulled the corners of his lips. "Kinglsey is going to love us."

**A/N: **_Here's Chapter 2 and I hope you all like it! _

_I just have to say that Sirius' reaction to being assumed as gay isn't a hit at gay people in general – I have nothing wrong with the gay community and I believe that everyone should be free to love whoever they want. This gag is from Supernatural, if anybody's seen it, they'll know what I mean if not, basically, the shows about two brothers who travel and fight demons and people always assume they're in a relationship. It just reminded me of James and Sirius and, as WOTW didn't have that much 'bromance' between Sirius and James, I thought that this story would have heaps of it :D_

_Now that that's out the way, thanks for reading this! Chapter three has been written and I'll probably post it in a few days after I've re-read and edited it :D_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	3. The Surprise

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own _

**Playing God**

**Chapter 3**

"And you know that this wizard did it, how?" Kingsley had asked when Sirius and James brought Hector Lone in, still unconscious and hovering in the air, James wand pointed lazily at him, not really caring if he banged his head against the edges of the many fireplaces that lined the main corridor.

"Oh, he said 'Jacob Gregan fell like the coward he is under my hands. The pure-blood sadist had what was coming to him and I will be remembered.' That kind of gave it away for me." James said, letting Lone fall to the floor with a bang as he moved his wand away, stopping the flow of magic. "Of course, being the amazing Auror's that we are, we'll give him veritaserum just to really make sure he wasn't imperio'ed to say it and then, because you love us so much, you can give us the rest of the day off?" James finished hopefully, his hazel eyes going wide behind his glasses and Sirius snorted in amusement.

Kingsley raised his eyebrow at James and crossed his arms over his broad chest, "well let me think, you're the only two Auror's who are actually working today and I can guarantee that you'll be needed again before 8:00pm when Giles and Willis take their shift…So no, you can't have the rest of the day off. Interrogation room three is available."

James sighed wearily and ran a hand through his black hair, making it stick up even more and glared at Hector Lone. Sirius laughed and clapped him on the back, pointing his wand at Lone and lifting him in the air once more. "It was worth a try, man!"

000000

Together, Hermione and Rosmerta walked up the marble stairs to the majestic Gringotts bank and Hermione realised what a nice woman Rosmerta really was. She was warm and bubbly and had a great sense of humour. She put her in mind of a more easy going Mrs Weasley and she felt a pang in her heart as she thought of the Weasley family and the devastation that ripped them apart.

"Right then, let's find that goblin." Rosmerta said, standing on her tiptoes and looking over all the counters, "he must be here somewhere...Ah, there he is! Griphook!" She shouted, startling Hermione slightly as Rosmerta moved through the crowds of people, waving her hand over her head and Hermione saw the goblin looking up slowly, glasses perched on the end of his nose, his black coal eyes fixed on Rosmerta as she hurried towards him, Hermione following in her footsteps.

"Griphook, I'm glad I've found you!" Rosmerta said happily, "this young lady here needs a vault." She gestured to Hermione who smiled lightly. Despite having a vault her before she had never actually met Griphook and wasn't sure how to respond to the goblin.

Griphook surveyed her lightly before turning and walking to a large white desk and clambering up onto it, raking through a solid gold box full to the brim of keys.

"How much money do you have?" He asked, extracting a large bronze key that was about the size of Hermione's forearm and seemed too heavy for Griphook to be able to carry.

"300,000 Galleons." Hermione mumbled, not wanting others to hear her. It wasn't all hers, most of it, if not all, was Harry's and everyone had thrown in some of their money for her and she very grateful for it. She had no idea how much apartments cost in these times, but she sincerely hoped that it wasn't such a large amount.

"Name?" He asked her, scribbling on a piece of parchment.

"Hermione Jean." She and Remus had thought it best that they don't change her name. It'll confuse her while she's here and the name barrier will stop Sirius truly getting to know her, because she might act differently under a different name. To avoid confusion when she eventually met up with her younger self, she dropped her last name.

"This way." Griphook told her, jumping from the desk and slowly making his way to the vaults, gesturing for them to follow. Rosmerta grinned at her and took off after the goblin, chatting to him about new drinks that the Triwand were getting in as they climbed into the cart.

They reached vault 826 and the cart, thankfully, came to a stop and the three of them climbed out. Griphook explained to her all about the amount of money she could have and, if it exceeded a certain limit, the precautions that would be taken to protect it as he opened the vault, the key screeching as it rubbed against its lock counterpart in protest of disuse.

After she had deposited her money, she and Rosmerta left the bank and headed to the apartment complex that Remus had told her about in the future and that Rosmerta told her about that morning.

"You know, Remus is lovely. He's bookish as well I think you two would get on great." Rosmerta said with a teasing smile, "and don't be swayed by Sirius' charms. Yes, he's handsome and yes, he is oh so charming, but he is a bit of a player, honey." Rosmerta warned in her warm, motherly way and Hermione smiled, nodding lightly. She already knew that and it was her job to kick him out of that state of mind and focus instead on her.

This was going to take a long time. Hermione had never been comfortable with her own looks but she knew how to use them – she'd had to, to get Cormac McLaggen to 'date' her in sixth year to annoy Ron. So, it wasn't entirely impossible.

"Here we are." Rosmerta said happily and together, she and Hermione entered the small courtyard.

Hermione had to admit, it was very beautiful. The apartments were circled around the courtyard and Hermione counted only three apartments. There was a spiral black staircase that moved like an escalator that led to the upper floor with another four apartments. Hermione liked the simplicity and the seclusion of it.

After viewing the apartment, she and Rosmerta apparated to the realtors and she propositioned for the apartment. Because of her bank statement (that Griphook had given her) and her willingness to get a job, she got the apartment without even trying and she was a little surprised at their willingness to give it to her.

"Hermione," Rosmerta said as they apparated back to the Triwand, "I didn't ask this before out of courtesy," she explained, moving to the bar and grabbing two glasses and placing them on the bar, turning and reaching for the Firewhiskey. "But I'm nosey. You came out of absolutely no-where with no past history and no family or friends." She said, pouring out the golden liquid and she pushed the drink towards her, taking a long gulp of her own. "What's your story?"

Hermione sighed mentally. She had wondered how long it would take for that question to be asked and she reached for her drink. She and Severus had come up with a reason for her appearing out of nowhere and never having gone to Hogwarts.

"It isn't anything glamorous." She started, looking deep into the golden liquid in her glass – she had always had a trouble with lies, but she was adapt at using them if the occasion called for it. "I'm a muggle-born and when I turned eleven I got my letter from Hogwarts and me and my family were shocked to say the least. Then I got a letter from Beauxbatons."

"How come?" Roserta asked her, leaning against the bar opposite Hermione, "I never got one from there."

Hermione bit back a sigh and bowed her head, letting her coffee coloured tendrils fall around her face, almost like a veil. "No, I don't suppose you did. It's because my family has a summer house out there – they own a dentistry, that means they attend to people's teeth," she explained quickly after seeing the confused look on Rosmerta's face, "and I'd used magic in France – unknowingly, of course. Beauxbatons clocked it, traced me and offered me a place. I accepted."

"What made you go to Beauxbatons, honey? What was wrong with Hogwarts?"

"Ah. Here comes the issue. Beauxbatons is a girl's school. My parents weren't comfortable sending me to a boarding school which had boys as well as girls. Besides, France was my mother's favourite place in the world and because of my school, she and my father moved there. Hence the reason I'm here by myself."

Rosmerta nodded slightly, her hand coming to rest on top of Hermione's over the bar, "I understand, honey. You're missing your family, aren't you?"

Hermione smiled sadly, hating the vision of her parent's that filled her mind. Thankfully, her parents were still alive in the future and the lie she was telling Rosmerta now wasn't truly a lie – her parents were in a different country. They lived in Australia, unaware that Hermione even existed, away from the death and torture of Muggle's and Muggle born's and the death and destruction that plagued the Wizarding World. "You could say that. But I'm used to them not being around. I know it sounds bad, but having non-magic parents sort of creates a barrier between us."

Rosmerta sighed in an echo of Hermione and patted her hand once before turning and grabbing a small, white Apron that tied around her waist. "What do you say to a bit of dinner? Then we'll go job hunting!"

After the amazing dinner that Rosmerta had cooked up for them in what felt like seconds to Hermione, reminding her securely of Mrs. Weasley, they left the Triwand again in search of a job. Rosmerta mentioned working at the Ministry (they were always hiring in there) but Hermione remembered Remus' determination that she go work in the book store. Although why, Hermione didn't know; wouldn't she see Sirius more often if she, too, worked in the Ministry? Still, as much as she wanted to follow what her head was saying and agree with Rosmerta, she realised that Remus had specifically said the bookstore for a reason, so Hermione went with that.

She realised why the second she pushed open the door. Standing there behind the counter was the person that she really shouldn't be surprised to see and yet she was. His light brown hair was neat and combed and pushed off of his pale face, which had slight, thin scars and his black robe was more of a dull grey and was slightly shabby. She was looking at a nineteen year old Remus Lupin.

Hermione smiled in pure relief – if she got the job then she would be spending her days here with someone that she knew…Even if he didn't know her. Yet.

"Hello, Rosmerta." Remus greeted her happily, running a hand through his hair briefly, his eyes flicking to Hermione. "I know you. I saw you last night." He said, holding his hand out. Hermione took it with slight hesitation, unsure how to act around this younger, happier Remus. "I'm Remus Lupin."

"Hermione." She said simply, letting a small smile pull at her lips. "I've come to apply for a job here."

"Ahhh," Remus said in an almost knowing tone, reaching under the counter for a piece of parchment that Hermione realised was a form that she was to fill out, "this should take you no more that five minutes." He said, handing it and a red quill over and she started filling it out, hesitating at questions such as _Previous job experiences_ and _Previous income. _

After filling it out, she handed it back to Remus who took it with a lopsided grin and ran a critical eye over her answers. "You live in the apartment opposite mine," he said, frowning slightly, "just moved in?"

"Yeah, I got it this morning." Hermione said, feeling a lot more apprehensive about lying to Remus. He simply nodded at her answer and reached for his wand, tapping her application with his wand once before it glowed golden and the crème parchment turned a nice, coppery colour. "When will I find out if I've got the job?"

"Right now. You're hired." He grinned at her, shaking her hand once again. "Can you start work tomorrow?"

Hermione stared blankly at Remus and slowly nodded her head, confusion settling in her stomach slightly. "Wait…Just like that?"

"Just like that. See you tomorrow, Hermione." Remus said before going to assist someone in the back of the bookstore.

"Well, isn't that lucky?" Rosmerta said happily and she led Hermione out of the shop with a gentle hand at the small of her back.

It was all becoming a bit suspicious to Hermione, there was no way that she just happened to be involved (however marginally) in a case that Sirius was working on and no way that she was just handed a job and apartment. This was too easy and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

00000

Waiting around was probably the worst part of being an Auror. It drove Sirius to insanity most days – well, everyday. They had brought Lone in at 11am. It was now 4pm and they had yet to interrogate him. Sirius groaned and threw a quill at the wall just for something to do and nearly hit James in the head as he walked through the door.

"Hey! Don't mess up my beautiful hair." James frowned, but Sirius could tell (which is what nine years of friendship does to you) that he was only just joking and that his anger wasn't real.

"Well, I wanna take my frustration out on something that the world won't miss." Sirius said smugly and he barked a laugh when James' face practically fell at his words. He reclined back in his chair and linked his fingers behind his head, picking his feet up to rest on the edge of his desk.

Before James could retaliate (in other words, throw his spell-o-tape at him) a paper aeroplane soared through the open door and landed with precision on James' oak desk as Kingsley popped his head around the door.

"Well, it looks as if Lone is good and ready to talk. What do you say to some interrogating?" Sirius could have kissed the man at those words and he eagerly leapt out of his seat. With a shake of his head and a small smile, Kingsley left them.

"Come on, Potter, let's show this brain-dead fool how it's handled when Potter and Black are on the case!" Sirius shouted, posing with his balled fists on his hips, his head held high and James stifled a laugh.

"Sirius, you make no sense as a human being." James chuckled, opening the paper memo on his desk as he pushes the chair back before freezing, half-way between sitting and standing, his eyes wide and comical and Sirius thought that he looked a bit like a chicken getting ready to lay an egg.

"James, what are you…?" The joke that Sirius had burning on the tip of his tongue eases as he notices the panicked look in James eyes behind his glasses as they scanned the hastily scrawled words on the parchment before him. "James, what is it?"

"Lily. It's Lily, she's…Merlin, she's at St. Mungo's!"

"What? Why?" Worry for his best friend's wife, a part of his family, settled heavily in his stomach as he tensed up.

"She collapsed at work. I have to go, I'm sorry, but I have to go." He scrambled to stand up right, nearly tripping over the leg of his chair as he practically ran around the desk.

Sirius nodded slowly, his lips pursed into a tight line. "I'll cover for you. Let me know, alright?" James nodded and clapped him on the shoulder briefly before running from the room as if his feet were made from rockets. Sirius leaned against the edge of his desk his thoughts straying to Lily and a hope that whatever it was it wasn't life threatening. James would never recover.

"Auror Black?" He looked up to see a beautiful witch with flaming red hair that curled over her shoulders and a bright, dazzling smile. "Hector Lone is ready to be questioned. Didn't Kingsley come and tell you?" She asked, looking confused. "Where's Auror Potter?"

Sirius didn't even bother to pretend to be happy and instead, breezed past the witch - when one of his best friends was in trouble, here was the last place that he wanted to be.

00000

James apparated in the lobby of the magical hospital and, with desperation seizing his heart like a metal fist, ran to the reception and was thankful that, for probably the first time he's ever known, that there was nobody waiting to be seen, otherwise he wouldn't have any trouble getting his star out.

"Lily Potter! Where is she?" He practically yelled at the receptionist and she raised her eyebrows at him, unfazed by the volume of his voice.

"Are you family?" She asks icily, flipping idly through some files, looking as though she'd rather be anywhere but here.

James exhaled loudly through his nose and his grip on the counter turned his knuckles a pale white. "She's my wife."

"Room 432. Third floor." She said slowly, not even bothering to look at him fully and he didn't spare her another look, just ran through the corridor and up the stairs – he couldn't stand the thought of being in a lift right now, just stopping and letting himself think about what was happening. He bursts through the door leading to the third floor and nearly hit a Healer in the face with it. With a hurried apology he ran down the hallways, dodging people as the golden numbers on the doors flashed by before he got to room 432.

He didn't even knock. Just opened the door and stepped inside, his eyes landing on Lily immediately who was sat cross-legged on the end of her single-bed, her bright red hair in a messy ponytail, her body wrapped around in a pink quilted dressing gown as she hummed to herself, flipping the pages of a book slowly, a smile on her face.

James walked into the room, his panic and desperation was being doused, as if someone had just poured cold water over them and he fell to his knees beside her bed. "Lily…" He said, his hand cupping her face as she looked at him, her green eyes bright. "What happened?"

"Oh, James," Lily said and James felt his heart constrict again, not being able to override the worry that was filling him up inside.

"What happened?" He asked again, letting his fingers rub over the smooth skin of her cheekbone again.

"James, I'm pregnant." She said happily, gently reaching for his other hand and placing it on her stomach. James blinked vacantly at her, trying to process the words as he stared at her, his eyes sliding down her body to where his hand rested on her stomach.

"Pregnant?" He echoed, his brows coming together lightly, "as in, with a baby?"

Lily laughed lightly, running her hand through his black hair lightly, scratching at his scalp with her nails. "Yes, James. With a baby. A real baby." She shook her head in amusement and finally, Lily's words sunk in.

"YES!" James shouted, punching the air and jumping to his feet, doing some strange Irish jig before grabbing Lily around the waist and spinning her in mad circles, her laughter echoing off the walls of her room. "Wow, we're going to have a baby…Our baby!" Suddenly he stopped and lowered Lily so her feet touched the floor. "Woah, shouldn't have done that! Are you okay?"

Lily shook her head again and leaned onto her tiptoes, pressing a gently kiss to his lips. "Are you joking? I'm fantastic."

"I have to go and tell everybody!" James yelled with glee and ran from the room again only this time, his motions were powered by joy rather than fear.

00000

Hector lone had confessed (With Veritaserum), James was going to be a father and Sirius had the day off tomorrow. So far, this was turning out to be a pretty good year.

"How far along is she?" Remus asked as they all sat around their usual tale in the Triwand. It had been Sirius' idea to go here and Remus and Peter hadn't questioned it, but James' raise of his eyebrows told Sirius that James knew his real reason for going here.

"6 weeks." James grinned, resting back in his seat. "Oh, life is good!"

Sirius grinned and headed over to the bar to order them drinks. Unfortunately, he was the only one who didn't have a curfew. Remus was working tomorrow and training a new employee, James had to get back to Lily (who was thankfully back at home now) and Peter was seeing his grandma tomorrow, and he really didn't want to show up at her house with a raging Hangover.

He waved at Madame Rosmerta, who winked joyfully at him and grabbed four glasses, filling them to the brim with the golden liquid of Firewhiskey as sliding them across the bar to him. "Rosmerta, where's Hermione?" He asked over the volume of the crowd. For some reason, he couldn't stop thinking about the brown-eyed girl and his thoughts had strayed to her more than once that day.

"She's upstairs in her room, sweetie. She'll be moving into her own place, soon." She said conversationally, leaning against the bar, giving Sirius a nice view of her creamy skin and cleavage before a burly wizard with sandy coloured hair grabbed her attention.

With a dog like grin, Sirius tilted his head at Rosmerta before picking his way back to the table just as his three best friends burst into laughter. "Thanks, mate!" James said, nodding in appreciation as he knocked back his drink. Sirius chuckled lightly as he collapsed in his seat, facing the staircase to the rooms to let upstairs. He leaned one arm on the table, his fingers wrapped around his glass as one leg lifted and the heel of his black boot hooked around the edge of Remus' chair.

"Why don't you go upstairs and see her?" James asked, wiping his mouth as Peter and Remus looked at them in slight confusion.

"See who?" Peter asked.

"This girl that Sirius met yesterday and he can't get enough of her." James sniggered and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I don't have to take this." Sirius said, thankful for the semi-excuse of going upstairs, "if anyone needs me, I'll be in room number four."

"Oh trust me, I think we'll wait till you come downstairs." Remus sniggered and Sirius pointedly gave him the finger before weaving through the crowd (the Triwand was exceptionally busy today) and walking calmly up the stairs.

He wondered, briefly, why he couldn't stop thinking about Hermione as he knocked on her door, but her answering it seemed to answer his question.

She was stood before him in flannel pyjamas, her hair in an extremely messy bun with not a lick of make-up on and she was so stunningly beautiful. Her big brown eyes framed with long eyelashes showed her confusion at seeing him stood in the other side, leaning against the doorframe with his thumbs hooked around his belt loops of his jeans, and her cupid bow lips were pulled into an 'o' of slight surprise.

"Sirius…What are you doing here?" She asked, stepping into his line of vision fully and Sirius smiled warmly at her.

"To see you." He answered truthfully, "can I come in?" He gestured with his head to the room and Hermione stepped back, opening the door wide. "Thanks, love."

When he set his eyes on the room, it was a total mess. It wasn't neat and tidy like it had been but instead, it seemed as if everything that she owned (which to be honest, wasn't actually a great amount) was thrown all over the place.

"Er, is this a bad time?" He asked, smirking when his eyes caught sight of one of her bra's thrown haphazardly over the bed.

"No, I'm just looking for something." Hermione frowned slightly, her eyes raking over her possessions before sighing and turning to face him.

"Maybe I could help?" He offered.

Hermione shook her head, a tendril of curly brown hair falling from behind her ear and she brushed it away with her hand impatiently. "No, I don't actually know what I'm looking for."

"Uh-huh," Sirius raised an eyebrow and smirked when he saw her skin flush a dull pink colour.

"Did you want anything in particular?" She asked, sitting on her bed and pushing her clothes off of it to make some room for him. Sirius was a little sad to see the red bra disappear.

"Maybe. What do you say to a date?" The words spilled out of his mouth before he could really think about them. Beside him, she stiffened and froze at his words and he tried not to be worried by it, but the feeling of unease crept along his spine. She was going to say no.

"I don't know, Sirius. I mean, I only just moved here and I don't –"

"Okay," he cut her off, placing his hand gently on her shoulder, "how about, instead of a date, we just meet up for drinks?" If he had to build the relationship slowly he would do.

Hermione smiled lightly, which showed him that she much preferred that idea than to jumping into a relationship. And Sirius realised that that is what it would be – Hermione didn't seem like the type of girl to have a one-night stand and, if she was, he would be a teeny bit disappointed.

"Okay. When were you thinking?" She asked, rubbing at her nose slightly, her brown eyes twinkling.

"How about tomorrow? I have the day off." He shrugged like it was no big deal and leaned back on his arms, swinging one foot slightly to give off the air of casual elegance.

"I'm at work tomorrow." She frowned slightly and Sirius's eyebrows rose in surprise. "How about after? I think my shift end when the shop closes."

"Where do you work?" He asked and frowned when her skin began to flush again.

"Err…Flourish and Blotts, the bookshop in Diagon Alley. I got it this morning."

Sirius sighed as he realised that she was the employee that Remus had to train tomorrow and he also felt just a small twinge of jealousy. She and Remus would be with each other practically everyday and that stirred something foreign inside him. "Okay. It's a date. Or not." He corrected at seeing Hermione's slight glare.

**A/N:** _Hey! Sorry I got this up late! I don't really have an excuse, so forgive me anyways?_

_Sorry to the people who reviewed Chapter 2 that I haven't replied to! My compyter isn't recieving e-mails to tell me that I actually have reviews and it won't let me reply to them on here right now - but the second that I can, I will :D_

_Oh, also, I know that Beauxbaton's is a co-ed school and so is Durmstrang in the books, but to make it a bit easier why Hermione went to Beauxbaton's, I followed the films image of Beauxbaton's being all girls and Durmstrang being all guys :D_

_Thanks for reading!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	4. The Answer

**Disclaimer: **_No matter how much I wish it were true, I don't own Harry Potter. _

**Playing God**

**Chapter 4**

The bell above the door jingled as it was pushed open and Remus looked up to see Hermione, the girl who he had hired yesterday, breeze in, shivering slightly from the cold.

"Morning." She greeted him, smiling his way and he couldn't help but smile back. Something had made him hire this girl and, while he wasn't sure what it was, he followed his instincts.

"Morning. Are you ready for your first day of work?" He asked, leading her to the back room which was full to the brim with books – they needed to be stocked on the shelves.

Hermione gazed at all the books before her with something akin to wonderment on her face and Remus chuckled lightly, telling her the system of this bookstore and she caught on quickly, getting to work right away.

His instincts were always right.

Well, usually anyway.

He left her to it and went back to the store to assist an old woman with a kind face who was looking at the Gardening books.

00000

A few hours later, Hermione was still in the backroom, still sorting books to be stored on the shelves. Remus had popped in a few times to make sure that she was still okay and had offered her a cup of coffee which she had happily taken. Hermione found though, that she was quite enjoying herself. She couldn't so this as a permanent job mind, but it was nice and relaxing for her right now.

She had just stocked up the book trolley and was getting ready to push it through to the main room to stock the shelves when a book title caught her eye, the golden font gleaming in the dull candlelight.

_The__voyageur de temps_

Hermione stopped in her tracks and reached for it impulsively, feeling an electric current when she touched the spine of the time travelling book – it looked brand new as if it had never been opened. She took it down, having to stand on her tiptoes to get it from the high shelf and she gasped lightly when she saw the front cover.

It was the mirror that she had used to get here.

"Only two of those mirror's are in existence." Hermione whipped around, a hand jumping to her heart as she looked at Remus who had closed the door gently behind him and was now leaning against the strong oak wood. "Sorry," he smiled apologetically at her reaction, "there's a woman outside who wants a book on medieval castles – and I see that you're about to stock those shelves," he spied her book trolley and raised an eyebrow, "maybe you could do that now, yeah?" Hermione was suddenly transported back to Third Year with Remus as her Defence teacher and she felt nostalgia pains grip her chest.

"Absolutely." She said smiling shakily, feeling her eyes burn with unshed tears as she thought back to her Hogwarts days, where nothing was as painful as it is now.

Remus nodded and opened the door again, waiting for her to push the trolley through first before closing the door behind the pair of them. "Here we go, sir." Remus said cheerfully, reaching for the medieval castles book that was resting on the top of the books. "I'll just ring that up for you." He smiled and Hermione was slightly envious of Remus' good nature and kind-hearted spirit despite the horror that he went through once a month.

Hermione sighed slowly and started putting the books on the appropriate shelf in alphabetical order, but she found herself messing up a few times – her mind was focused on that book waiting for her in the back room.

"It's almost closing time Hermione; do you think you could stock one more shelf?" Remus asked and Hermione readily agreed.

She picked up the book in the backroom again, whipping out her wand and making the candle's burn that much brighter as she flipped through the pages, getting hit with that 'new-book-smell' one that she had also loved. She stopped when she saw the small drawing of a mirror again, carefully inked in on the top of page 45 and she sat down on the floor, uncaring of the shock of cold that she felt and began to read the tiny print.

_The mirrors of Cupio and Cupere __were forged in 1433 by Thomasius di Gellucio and his wife Pipa. After the original Mirror of Erised smashed, two pieces of glass were unaccounted for and it is believed that it is those pieces which live in the mirrors forged so long ago. _

_The mirrors have the same properties as the Mirror of Erised, but Thomasius, after his wife fell dangerously ill, decided to take it one step further. He sought out a dark, powerful wizard, begging and pleading for his wife's health and, in return he would do anything that the wizard wished. _

_The Wizard agreed and placed a powerful spell on the two mirror's, instructing Thomasius that, if he wanted his wife well, he must look into the mirror and desire it with all of his heart. However, as Thomasius looked in the mirror, his eye caught the reflection of a beautiful maiden and his desire changed. _

_The maiden at once became attracted to him and he and the Maiden were joined as one while, in the home that he and Pipa shared, the life left her as she waited for her husband to return home to her. _

_Furious with the trick that the Wizard had played on him and heartbroken at the death of his wife, he once again sought out the Dark wizard and demanded that he bring his wife back. "You must desire it." The wizard told him, "anything that you desire will happen and luck will befall to the user. But, if you get sidetracked or doubt falls upon you, then the mirror will backfire and a serious consequence will befall you." _

_Thomasius looked into the mirror a final time and prayed for his dear wife to come back to him, and was shocked when she stood before him, looking well and in great health. Finally understanding the power of the mirror, Thomasius became greedy and he desired things that no one man should have – a hundred women at his beck and call, all the money in the world and a thousand mansions. _

_But, Poor Thomasius found that he had not desired his wife acceptance and she left him, unhappy with his life now. So, he looked into the mirror. Only to be distracted by the glint of gold, a woman's moan, a butler. He grew so desperate for his wife's companionship that he ran from one of his many homes and into a forest on the edge of his property hoping that there would be no distractions there. _

_There was none. _

_He sighed in relief and looked into his reflection, surprised to see that he was now an old man – he hadn't focused on his actual reflection at all in all the years that he had been using it and he despised his appearance – he needed to look more attractive! So, that's what his new desire became and he de-aged ten years. _

_With this new age came a new understanding and he gazed at the mirror in horror – who was he if he cared more about his looks then the woman he loved? He could no longer stand the corruption that followed him and he crawled back to the Wizard, who was laughing gleefully. _

"_Have you __learnt the full power that the mirrors bring?" He asked, leaning foreword from his seat, his eyes glinting with the horror that was to come. _

"_Yes. Merlin, please take it back, take it all back…" Thomasius begged and threw the mirror to the floor in horror, where it smashed into a thousand pieces momentarily before fixing itself, glowing a dull gold for a moment. _

"_I think…" the dark Wizard whispered, "that it is time for your payment to me." As he said the word, a green flash filled the room and Thomasius fell to the floor, dead. _

_Meanwhile, in the home that Thomasius had once shared happily with his wife, Pipa stood, holding the other mirror, her tears marking the clear glass as she remembered her past with her husband and she closed her eyes in anguish before a desire took over – her desire was not one for her own benefit, but for others – she desired that no one else would go through the same amount of pain that she had once gone through and the mirror disintegrated in her hand, running through her fingers like sand through an hourglass. _

_The mirrors, because of the dark magic placed upon them will rebuild themselves after the user has died – when Pipa died five years after her husband of natural causes, the two mirrors became whole again to fall into the hands of the next user in which only one desire is granted. _

"You know that staff have a discount." Hermione jumped at the sound of Remus' voice, startling her for the second time that day and she breathed out sharply, trying to calm her beating heart. "Sorry," Remus said apologetically, his sandy blonde hair falling in front of his eyes, "but you make it so easy to get your heart racing."

Hermione blushed lightly at the innuendo that unexpectedly fell from Remus' lips and she watched as he shook his head, slight shock visible on his features. "I've been hanging out with Sirius and James too much," he mumbled before walking closer to her and Hermione could see that his own cheeks were covered in a rosy blush. "Would you like me to ring that up for you?"

Hermione had learnt all that she could from the book, but the pull in her stomach was telling her that it would be best if she owned it – that way, she could look it up all the time and not have to sneak around in the back room. With a small smile she handed the book to Remus who went to the counter while she continued stocking the last shelf, ready for the next day.

"Good first day at work?" Remus asked as they were leaving, handing Hermione her book which she shrunk and made weightless, slipping it into the pocket of her jacket.

"Yeah – I think I'll enjoy working here." She smiled as her mind ran over everything that she had learnt – no wonder she was so lucky in this time – she desired to help Sirius and this is what she was doing. The only problem was, Sirius wasn't with her for attraction, Sirius was chasing her because of the pull of the mirror and that didn't sit right with her.

"Good evening," a voice said smoothly and Hermione turned her head; she wasn't quite sure why the sight of Sirius leaning against the entrance of the bookstore was such a shock to her, but her heart jumped a little as she glimpsed his chiselled features. "Hey." He said casually, pushing away from the brick wall to stand in front of her, his close proximity and his height meaning that she had to tilt her head back to look at him properly.

"Careful, Hermione," Remus said playfully, pushing his friend lightly in the shoulder, "he can be a real dog sometimes."

Sirius snorted and stowed his hands in the pockets of his black jeans (which hugged his thighs nicely, she instantly noticed) and shrugged one shoulder, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I'm sure that his bark is worse than his bite." She grinned, feeling included as she realised the 'Dog' comment was a little code they shared to his animagus form, even though she shouldn't know what it referred to.

"Oh, I'll bite if you ask me to," Sirius said seriously, but the slight curve of his mouth gave away that he was just teasing, "not to break the skin but hard enough to leave a mark on your a-"

"-And that's my cue to leave. I'll see you tomorrow, Hermione. Have a nice night." He waved and disapparated with a loud 'pop', leaving Sirius and Hermione to themselves.

"So, where to?" Hermione asked, rubbing her hands together for warmth – she had stupidly left her gloves back in her room at the Triwand, packed up and ready to be moved to her new apartment the next day.

"Well, I was thinking between my sheets if I'm being perfectly honest," he grinned, throwing one arm over her shoulders and pulling her close and he noticed her eye-roll. "No? Are you sure? They're Egyptian cotton…" He sang, and Hermione couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh, you've persuaded me, I'm all yours to bite." She said teasingly, used to banter like this from the years that she had spent together with Ron.

The thought of Ron sobered her instantly and her smile fell – she was only half aware of her surroundings as her mind transported her back to the moment when Ron was wrenched from her grasp.

Fortunately, Sirius managed to drag her back to the here and now before her mind could wander into the box which she had built up by snapping his fingers before her eyes, drawing her attention back to him, where he thought they rightfully belonged. "Come on now, Bookworm – can't have you drifting away now can we? We have a date to go on."

Hermione didn't even bother to correct him, just smiled and slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow, which Sirius happily offered her before he side-along apparated the two of them to the Triwand, and Hermione loved the sense of familiarity as she gazed at the wizarding pub and let Sirius lead her gently past the threshold and to a vacant table in the corner of the room.

As he went to get them some drinks, Hermione briefly wondered if he had brought her here because she knew the place and, if that had been the case then she owed him one. Definitely.

He came back with the drinks, whistling happily under his breath and plopping himself down in the chair beside her, dropping his arm around the back of the chair.

"How was your first day at work?" He asked, his grey eyes trained on her brown ones and she felt slightly nervous – as if he could see right through her and just know what she was up to.

"It was…Interesting." She summed up, a smile on her face as her mind reverted back to the book. He raised his eyebrows and took a large gulp of his drink, hiking his foot up to rest on the chair beside him.

"And how was your day?" She hated small talk with a passion, but it felt a little awkward to be talking so casually with Sirius, Harry's Godfather, that she reverted back to easy conversation.

"Long. I just spent most of it picturing what you and I would be doing tonight." Hermione blinked at him, as if he was talking a foreign language and Sirius sighed, lowering his head and shaking it lightly. "Ah, sorry about that – I'm used to trying to turn a girl on for the night's activities, but this makes a welcome change." He grinned and Hermione relaxed in her seat, rolling her eyes at Sirius' words.

"Don't worry about it. I guess that Remus was right when he called you a dog, huh?" She teased, raising her own glass to her lips and watched as Sirius chuckled, sipping some of his own drink.

They talked pleasantly for a while, Hermione told him the same story of her past that she had shared with Madame Rosmerta a few days ago and let slip that she was moving into her new apartment tomorrow and he was eager to offer his and his friends assistance. She stumbled through an excuse that she knew was lame, and the raised eyebrow that Sirius offered her told her that he thought it was lame to. She relented and he promised to be there with his "goon squad" at 5:00pm.

Hermione just smiled and clinked her glass with his easily, feeling relaxed for the first time that night and let herself lean back in her chair and didn't mind that the back of Sirius' knuckles were brushing over her shoulder. In fact, she found that she was enjoying it as goose bumps appeared on her skin.

"Are you done?" He asked, nodding his head to her empty glass and she nodded, placing it on the table before it, not even realising that she had been holding it in her hands. "Let's go," he said suddenly, standing and holding his hand out to her, palm up, looking at her expectantly and Hermione blinked in surprise – there was more to this date?

She hesitantly took his hand and Sirius grinned, although if it was in encouragement or amusement she wasn't sure, but it didn't matter – she was being pulled (gently, of course) out the pub and to the corner of the street where Sirius pulled her close and Hermione had the sense that she was being squeezed through a pipe as he apparated them and the feel of his arms wrapped tightly around her waist and his breath brushing her temple lightly made her forget for a moment the horrible claustrophobic feeling that took over.

When she felt her feet touch the floor, she allowed herself to lean into Sirius lightly and let herself inhale his scent of leather, soap and something that she could only describe with the word 'man'.

"Where are we?" She asked, clearing her head as she moved her body back from his and he grinned, sliding his hand down her arm and let his fingers tangle with hers and it just seemed so easy for him, but a small part of her wondered if his heart was beating just as fast as hers.

She let her brown eyes slide to the right of him for two reasons, one he was captivating her and it was clouding her judgement and two she really wanted to know where they were. She was a little surprised to see that they were in an open field and she looked at him, her eyebrows raised in a silent question.

He stepped closer to her and she automatically looked down – she really wasn't used to the undivided attention of a man who she wasn't in a relationship with and this was brand new territory for her. He hooked his finger under her chin and lightly tilted her head up until she was looking directly into his grey eyes. "Look up." He whispered simply and he watched in slight amusement as her head tilted back further (exposing her neck that he was just _so tempted_ to lick) and her brown eyes slid up to see the thousands of tiny stars sparkling above them, winking merrily as they looked down at Earth.

"Beautiful, huh?" He asked her, not moving his gaze from her once and he relished in the look of pure amazement on her face.

"Stunning." She agreed and Sirius chalked one up for victory. He was slowly but surely seducing Hermione Jean and she was well aware of it.

He took his jacket off and laid it gently on the ground and sat on it, patting the space beside him and laying back, his hands under his head. Hesitantly Hermione sat beside him and he couldn't help the grin that pulled at the corner of his lips as he felt her shift and lay beside him.

They lay in silence as they gazed at the stars until Sirius couldn't ignore the pull in his stomach anymore and he slid his hand from underneath his head and gently took hers, linking their fingers; She gasped in slight surprise but made no move to let go of his hand. He was realising that it would take some work to actually persuade her to let him go on an actual date with her, but Sirius was more than up for the challenge. If he was being honest, he was actually enjoying the prospect of pursuing her.

"Do you know anything about astronomy?" Hermione asked and her voice startled him a little bit.

"Of course I do. I took it at Hogwarts you know." He replied and moved their joined hands so that he could point at the sky – "That's the big dipper and that one over there –" he slid their hands gently and shuffled just a bit closer to her to partly share his warmth and to (which is the real, genuine reason) just be closer to her. "That one is the Dog Star, which is called –"

"Sirius." She whispered and Sirius' eyebrows rose slightly, impressed that she knew. "I'm guessing that's your namesake?" She asked, rolling her head to look at him and he grinned, shifting one shoulder as best as he could whilst his arm was crossed underneath his head.

"I'm guessing that you took astronomy at Beauxbatons, huh?" He asked, liking that they were layers to this girl, how there was new things to learn all the time.

"You guessed right," she smiled at him, the upwards motion at the corner of her lips caused his to respond in kind, and he rolled onto his side easily, the hand that had been supporting his head went to cup her cheek. She inhaled sharply and Sirius grinned, sitting up and pulling her with him before raising the hand that he was holding to his lips and kissing it chastely.

"I hope you know, Hermione, that this isn't it." He said, leaning forward and pressing his lips to her forehead, "I'm not through with you yet."

**A/N**: _Thankyou to everyone reviewing this story and I'm trying to respond to all reviewers, but I may miss a few out - If I have, I'm so sorry! _

_Updates should be about one a week, but I'm on holiday next week so chapter 5'll be up next Sunday at the earliest. _

_Thanks for being patient with me, and a special shout-out to my regular reviewers from WOTW to this one! Thanks for sticking with me, guys :D_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	5. The Apartment

**Disclaimer: **_I don't, nor will I ever own the magical world of Harry Potter._

**Playing God**

**Chapter 5**

Hermione awoke on her last day at the 'Triwand' by Madame Rosmerta shaking her gently.

"What time is it?" Hermione asked around a yawn as she half sat up, resting her weight on her forearms.

"Early. You don't have to start work for about three hours yet." Rosmerta answered, sitting calmly on the edge of Hermione's bed and watched amusedly as Hermione rubbed her tired eyes.

"So why are you waking me up?" She asked around another yawn, watching Rosmerta carefully as the older woman glanced down at Hermione's bedcovers, tracing random patterns across the grey cotton. "Rosmerta?" Hermione prompted gently, wondering what was wrong with the woman.

Rosmerta sighed and rubbed the back of her head slightly awkwardly, her dirty blonde hair piled on top of her head in an extremely messy bun. "Well, the thing is you're leaving today and…I don't know, I don't feel right just letting you go and live in an apartment alone, honey." Rosmerta said, lifting her head up so that her eyes met Hermione's, who smiled back sadly – she didn't want to leave either, if she was being truthful – she had come to care for the older woman and wasn't quite ready to let that go. "I know that you have to, of course you do, you're growing up, you're independent and I don't really know you that well, love, but like I said, you'll be alone…And you're a Muggle-born and these are bad times for you. I don't know about the situation in France, but here it's deadly."

Hermione nodded slowly, understanding her friends' worry. She grinned at Rosmerta and flung the blanket up and off her, throwing it to the floor as she jumped up. "Rosmerta, have you got any ice-cream left?"

00000

That morning, Hermione breezed into work, a small smile on her face as she remembered her reassurances to Madame Rosmerta as they ate ice-cream (which really helped calm her friends' nerves) that if she thought she was in danger, that she was to go straight to the Triwand. Hermione grinned at Remus, who had peeked his head around the doorframe of the door to the back of the room, his golden hair a rumples mess about his head.

"Morning, Hermione – I hear that Sirius signed me up to help you move your stuff to your apartment?" Remus said, ducking back into the room and Hermione's mind flew to the moment on their…She hesitated to call it a date…when he offered his and his friends services.

"Oh, ignore him." Hermione called, taking off her outer-robe and stepping behind the counter to the register. She'd get to ring up purchases today as Remus worked in the back, going through all the invoices from December. "You don't have to do that."

"Nonsense, Hermione – Chivalry isn't dead, you know. Besides, you're apartments opposite mine – it isn't really a bother, to be fair." He assured her and Hermione smiled at his helpful nature.

A few hours later, just nearing her dinner break, the door opened carefully and the tiny bell rung out quietly, alerting Hermione to their presence. "If you need any help, just give me a shout." She called out without looking up from the book in her hands – she may be supposed to be working, but once Hermione lost herself in a book, it was a while until she was found again.

"I will do, dear," a warm voice called out – a warm, familiar voice.

Hermione practically slammed the book to the counter as she looked up, her eyes searching frantically for whoever had called, but they weren't there. A dim part of Hermione realised almost instantly that they were to the back of the store and Hermione could hear the chatter of children that told her one thing – she knew who this woman was.

She couldn't stop the pull in her heart and she stepped around the counter and made her way down the back to the shop, her heart pounding practically a mile a minute as she got closer to the voices – she could hear what sounded like two boys bickering loudly with each other over a book until the warm motherly voice interjected, breaking them apart.

The second she saw the woman she almost cried. Her hair was a lot redder now then grey, but her eyes still sparkled with wisdom and love for the five ginger haired children around her, all boys, her hand resting gently on her heavily pregnant stomach.

Mrs Weasley.

She watched as the tallest and oldest looking, who she knew was Bill, stood behind a smaller boy with Horn-rimmed glasses and a sour expression, his hands resting on his shoulders as if to say to the younger boy (who Hermione easily recognized as Percy) that he couldn't win. Hermione's brown eyes slid just to the right and saw another boy with all dark clothes and short cropped hair – Charlie. He was glaring at Percy and Hermione realised that it was Charlie and Percy who had been squabbling. Two identical children where sat in a double pram, giggling together and they seemed to be plotting something, sneakily looking over to Percy and Bill and Hermione just knew that Percy was going to get more upset as the day wore on.

And Ron…Ron wasn't even born yet, but Hermione couldn't stop the tears running from her eyes as she gazed at the small family, soon to be ripped apart and never stitched back together.

"Are you alright, dear?" Mrs Weasley asked and her voice was so comforting that Hermione longed to just hug the woman and close her eyes, trying to block out the horrors of the world and the hollowing responsibilities that fell on her and just sink into Mrs Weasley's safety and comfort.

But she couldn't. With a shake of her head she couldn't stay and watch – she ran. She didn't even think about it, just left the bookstore with a quick yell to Remus to tell him that she was taking her lunch break, not even stopping to hear his response and she just ran. She tried to dodge the swarm of people in Diagon Alley, but the tears in her eyes were making it hard for Hermione to tell where she was going and she crashed heavily into someone with a muscular chest, his arms coming up to catch her so that she wouldn't fall.

"Hermione, what happened?" His voice said urgently and Hermione looked up at him, recognizing it as Sirius (though he was still a little bleary because of her tears) and she could feel the worry coming off him, he was someone that she knew, someone that she _trusted_ – she sobbed and just crumpled and he acted instinctively, bringing her closer to his body at the same time as moving them both away from the cluster of witches and wizards, some of whom were staring and others who were tutting at them because they were in the way.

He was a little confused, he had to say – he'd been on his Lunch break and had been strolling leisurely down Diagon Alley, taking in the warm weather (for January anyways) and sending winks to the gaggles of women who had stopped to stare unabashedly at him when Hermione barrelled into him in tears.

He just huddled her closer to him, silently wondering how he always seemed to manage to run into the curly haired girl before him but stopped wondering about that when she let out a particularly loud sob.

"Hermione, what is it? Are you hurt?" He whispered, bowing his head so that he could ask against the shell of her ear and let his hands run over her arms (which were clamped around his middle) and down her back, but she seemed unharmed. He sighed and wrapped his own arms around her, his mind going to what had upset her.

After a few moments, Hermione composed herself and pushed herself away from him slightly, lifting up one hand to rub at her face with the sleeve of her light jacket but Sirius cupped her face with one hand, his thumb erasing her tears for her.

"Hermione, what the bloody Hell was that –"

"Would you like to go for a walk?" Hermione interrupted him and Sirius blinked at her for a moment, trying to process her words.

"Err…Okay, but Hermione, I think we need to –"

"I'll tell you. Let's go." She reached up to the hand on her cheek and linked her fingers with him (he momentarily paused at how well their fingers fit) and she led him away form the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley to a more secluded area.

00000

"I saw her and I just freaked." Hermione explained, leaning back against the tree beside Sirius, feeling slightly foolish at how she'd reacted towards Molly and she hoped dearly that she wouldn't hold it to heart.

"So, she's the mother of your ex?" Sirius asked, slouching almost elegantly against the tree trunk and Hermione closed her eyes, not wanting to go to the memories, but knowing that it was time she spoke about Ron – besides, if she was supposed to get Sirius to fall in love with her, she couldn't have that many secrets. "The ex whose comatose?"

Hermione nodded and leant her head back until it met the unforgiving bark of the oak tree. "Yes. His family home was attacked and two of his brothers, his sister and his father were killed and he just went mad with grief." Hermione paused and breathed deeply, need to find her Gryffindor courage to continue, "he was hell-bent on revenge. He disappeared one night without telling anyone and went to confront them, alone and they –" her Gryffindor courage failed her as she sobbed again, her shoulders shaking as Sirius' arm wound its way around them, pulling her in closer to his body where she curled into his side.

"It's alright, Hermione." She heard him through her memories, but his voice was just enough to stop her from dragged under in her horrible memories of that traumatic injury. "You don't have to finish. I get the picture." He said kindly and Hermione sighed thankfully, relived.

They stayed that way for a while, neither one feeling the need to move and, with a quick glance at his watch, he knew that he had actually a lot of time left of his lunch break. Sirius liked the feel of her pressed against him so close and Hermione liked feeling protected, like she didn't have to do everything alone. But the spell was broken when a silvery patronus wolf burst through the tree's and told Hermione that he needed her help at the shop.

Together, they apparated to the small book shop and Hermione turned to Sirius to thank him. "Any time, Hermione." He answered truthfully, pressing a quick, reassuring kiss to her forehead and Hermione knew in that second that if Sirius's actions weren't powered by the mirror's magic, then she'd definitely run after him and kiss him properly.

"I'm sorry, Remus, I didn't mean to be gone for so long." She said apologetically at her kind-of boss/friend who rolled his eyes good naturally at her before telling her to see to an elderly couple who had requested his help a few minutes ago as he served a teenage boy with a double lip piercing.

She shook her head lightly and pushed her sad lingering thoughts to the back of her mind as she focused on work and it turned out to be a good distraction. She threw herself into her job and, before she knew it, it was six o clock, time for the shop to open and for Hermione to move into her apartment.

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Hermione stood in the middle of her living room, gazing in wonder at the spacious apartment, taking in the electrical light fittings that the previous witch or wizard before her must have put in, the wonderfully cream walls that she knew would compliment all of her things and she smiled a little at the thought of going furniture shopping – call her a geek, but it's one of her favourite things to do.

She was momentarily distracted as she heard a loud bang and a slight yelp of pain and she turned to see James bouncing on one foot and clutching his other, her largest suitcase on the floor, the contents spewed out.

"God, James, you're such a butter fingers." Sirius snorted, carrying two suitcases in with ease. Hermione (And Minerva, of course) had the fore mind to bring furniture that she already owned along with her, such as her bed, so that she could have somewhat of a homely feel to her new place almost right away.

Hermione smiled lightly at Harry's carbon copy and brought her wand from her holster, sending a pain relieving spell his way. He grinned his thanks and pushed his glasses up his nose, his golden wedding band glinting in the artificial light.

"I want one of those." Sirius said wistfully, staring at the holster that Harry had bought Hermione two years before that wrapped around her hips and kept her wand safe and secure for when she wasn't using it, so she could carry it around at all times without being worried about accidently blowing one of her limbs off.

Then, Peter lumbered in and Hermione had to calm herself from launching herself at the man before her, who held her smallest suitcase in his small hands and Hermione couldn't help but notice that he didn't look a bit like the traitor that she knew he was to become. She felt the hate bubble in her stomach like a cauldron bubbling away and she saw red.

When Sirius had mentioned his 'goon squad' a small part of her had forgotten that that meant Peter as well. As stupid as that sounded, she had half-hoped that Peter would just stay out of her way.

"Where's Remus?" Hermione asked, trying to divulge her attention from the backstabber before her (who had placed his suitcase carefully by her front door) and Sirius raised his eyebrow lightly before answering her.

"He's talking to his neighbours and he'll be inviting you to them later." Hermione blanched a little at the thought of meeting a lot more people thinking that the best thing for her right now would be a nice, warm, relaxing bath when someone knocked on the front door lightly (which Peter had kicked shut) and James jumped up from his place on the floor and practically skipped to the door, opening it to reveal Lily Potter.

"Oh, my gorgeous wifey! What brings you here on this slightly cold evening?" James asked cheesily, but Hermione knew that he had asked her to accompany them – it was painfully obvious and judging by Sirius snort beside her, he knew it to.

Lily rolled her eyes – like Harry's, _so much_ like Harry's – and pushed past her husband, brushing her long, red hair behind her ear and she grinned at Hermione, moving closer to engulf her in a welcoming hug.

"Welcome to London!" She said cheerily, still hugging her tightly and Hermione couldn't fight the smile at the woman's kind demeanour. "I hope the boys have been treating you right. They can be a little overwhelming, but they are sweethearts, deep down." She beamed and Hermione knew instantly that Lily would be an amazing mother.

"I know." Hermione assured Lily, who smiled brightly again before taking her wand from inside her sleeve and gesturing wildly, watching with satisfaction as the furniture rose up from the suitcases and situated themselves, fully built, before them all.

"Now boys, I'm sure you'll have no trouble moving these around to where Hermione wants them, will you?" She phrased it like a question, but her tone left no room for arguments and Hermione grinned as the boys rolled their eyes but did as she asked, moving together as one to the red sofa to move it around to face the wall the Hermione instructed them to.

After they were all done rearranging her furniture (Hermione had told them that they didn't really have to, but they seemed determined to do this for her), the boys had collapsed on her couch and she was pretty sure that Sirius was asleep, his head on the arm rest and his socked feet in James lap, who was blinking sleepily. Hermione smiled and rolled her eyes in amusement and Lily grinned back before moving to get her husband. She pulled him gently from the sofa, being careful to not disturb Sirius and together they left, Lily promising to invite her to her home for a 'girl talk' and Hermione almost felt her heart break as she allowed her thoughts to stray to what was to become of Lily's future. Peter followed after the Potters, running a hand through his hair lazily.

That left her and Sirius alone in the living room and he rolled over onto his side, his arm curving to the floor, his fingertips brushing the crème carpet. Hermione softened at the sight of him and wondered, not for the first time, how somebody as attractive and caring as Sirius could still be single and remain single for pretty much most of his entire life – then she realised, quite quickly, that he _wanted_ to be single and that just made her plans that much harder. That and his Azkaban stay would have affected his game.

She sighed softly and crouched down before him, not letting her eyes linger on the smooth curve of his jaw or his high cheekbones that indicated his aristocratic heritage and placed her hand gently on his broad shoulder, attempting to wake him with gentle shakes, but she figured out that this just wasn't going to cut it as someone knocked lightly on her door. With a resigned sigh she left Sirius where he was (he seemed to be comfortable) and went to answer her door not surprised in the least to see Remus stood there, leaning casually against the doorframe.

"Ready to meet the neighbours?" He asked with a wolfish grin and Hermione smiled and nodded despite the feeling of unease that settled low in her stomach. She left a quick note to Sirius and shut the front door quietly behind her, following Remus as he headed for the third and last apartment on the bottom floor and knocked on it without hesitation.

The door was opened to reveal one of the most stunning girls that Hermione had ever seen in her life, tanned skin, long curly black hair, deep sensual eyes and a body to die for. But Hermione could also sense that she wasn't a girl to be messed with and she bit her lip in trepidation, waiting for Remus to introduce her. "Hermione this is Natalia. Natalia, Hermione just moved into to apartment 2 and wanted to meet her neighbours."

"Er…Hi?" Hermione said tentatively and Natalia raised one eyebrow in a casual gesture, letting her eyes trail down Hermione's body quickly before snapping up to meet her eyes and Hermione couldn't help but gulp.

"Yeah. Lupin, you rethinking the offer?" Hermione knew that she'd just been blind sighted and a small part of her was relieved – she could deal with rejection rather than outright hate and prejudice.

"It's still no, Natalia." Remus grinned, running a hand through his messy hair and Natalia rolled her eyes and closed the door, barely glancing Hermione's way as she shot a 'your loss' look Remus' way. "Ignore Natalia, she always acts like that when she doesn't know someone – you'll find out in about a week if she likes you or not. If it's the former, you've made an extremely loyal friend, if it's the latter…" Remus hesitated as they started to climb the winding stairs to the top floor and Hermione felt the unease tighten even more.

"If it's the latter…?" She prompted and she heard Remus chuckle lightly.

"You might wanna hit the ground running. She's no Slytherin, but she might as well have been sorted into that house for all the conniving things she's done to other people who have lived here."

Suddenly, the apartment didn't seem so inviting.

At the next apartment she was greeted by a tall man with tanned skin, broad muscles and thin dreadlocks that hung to his shoulder and Remus introduced him as Steven. Steven seemed polite enough and the girlish giggle in the background and the predatory grin on his face told her that she wasn't the only one who thought he was attractive.

At the next apartment she was greeted to a young couple, about their age, maybe a year or so older. The girl was pretty with slightly curly blonde hair and green eyes with a happy-go-lucky attitude named Caitlyn who had hugged Hermione on being introduced and the man had short black hair with hazel eyes who was called Jack and smiled at his girlfriend's antics.

In the final apartment there was a guy with his light brown hair in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, deep chocolate brown eyes, a nice neck and jaw line and rings on all his tanned fingers, a guitar held in one hand and the other in his pocket. The first thing that Hermione noticed after Remus introduced him as Cal was the Irish accent. Hermione knew that she was here for Sirius and Sirius only, but that didn't stop her admiring the way that he pronounced his R's or the way her name rolled off his tongue.

Hermione now knew her neighbours and it was a very strange, very odd feeling – this was something that she never thought she'd live to be able to do and the feeling of euphoria at this little indulgence was slightly foreign, but she accepted it all the same.

As she kissed Remus gently on the cheek good night and slipped back into her own home, attempting one last time to wake Sirius she hoped that Natalia wouldn't make her run for the hills. She was quite happy here and she knew that she would be for some time.

**A/N**: _Okay, I'm back! I hope you all like this chapter – If anyone has ever seen Chuck (if not, you should – it's Totally awesome!) where Hermione lives looks like where they live :D I'm sure that made sense…_

_Anyways, thanks for being patient!_

_Kelly _

_xxx_


	6. The Disaster

**Disclaimer**: _I do not own anything recognisable to the Harry Potter world_

**Playing God**

**Chapter 6**

Hermione woke up to a gentle tapping against the window of her new bedroom and she groaned lightly at the back of the throat as she rubbed a hand over her face before pushing the covers back away from her body (shivering momentarily in the exposed air) and reaching for the window latch to let the owl in.

"Do you think that you could make that noise again followed by my name?" Hermione let one corner of her lips tilt as she turned to face Sirius as the owl soared past her and cuffed the top of her head lightly with its outstretched wing before dropping its letter on the red covers of her bed and flying out the window again.

However, Hermione barely noticed this as she was too busy staring at the man in her doorway – after failing to wake him up last night, she instead threw a blanket over his sleeping form on the sofa and went to her own room to get some sleep herself. She was half-regretting this as she gazed at his toned muscles beneath the tight web of slightly tanned skin that seemed to be daring her to stroke her fingers across the expanse of exposed flesh, but she refrained.

Still, the predatory grin from Sirius told her that he knew exactly what she was thinking, that he'd intended it from her. "Who's it from?" He asked and Hermione stared blankly at him before he grinned and tilted his head to her bed where the letter still lay unopened and he took a gulp of the coffee mug in his hand (that she hadn't even noticed until that moment). She hurriedly moved to the bed and picked up the envelope, not recognising the writing on the front in purple ink so she opened it with slight trepidation. She was after all a Muggle-born and she was expecting attacks.

What she got, however, was a letter from Lily, asking her if next Thursday at 3pm was good for their girl talk. Hermione stared at the parchment in slight shock as she hadn't expected Lily to have been serious and she shuddered at the thought of talking to the woman that she would have to let die in little over a year.

"What is it? Not bad news?" He asked and she could sense the slight urgency and worry to his voice – people had been dying left and right around them and Sirius wasn't in a hurry to hear about any more deaths.

"Oh, no it isn't," she hurried to placate him and he relaxed his stance slightly. She smiled and turned the parchment over it to write on the other side, thousands of excuses running through her head as to why she couldn't exactly go then. She would avoid Lily and James as much as was physically possible (which wouldn't be often if the plan worked and she started dating Sirius) but she didn't think that she'd be able to befriend them and then just let Voldemort walk right into their house and kill them.

She looked up to see Sirius, but he was no longer stood in her doorway. She quirked her eyebrow and moved from her bedroom and down the hall to see if she could spot him – she eventually found him in the kitchen, putting the kettle on the stove and humming to himself, brushing his long black hair away from his face and he glanced at her, his grey eyes shining with amusement.

It was very strange, Hermione thought, watching Sirius do something that was domesticated – she had always pegged him as a take-away kind of guy or a coffee shop, not one who knew how to work Muggle appliances. But then, her brain reminded her, he's always been against the pure-blood standard way of life that he had been forced to live by in his childhood and teens and had probably mastered these things long ago, mainly to annoy his mother. She smiled faintly to herself at the memory of his bedroom back at 12 Grimmauld place and the amount of Muggle posters and Gryffindor pride that he had crammed into that room.

"What's got you so smiley?" He asked her just as the kettle started to whistle.

"What you doing on Thursday?" She asked, suddenly feeling the need to be with him a lot more than normally – she knew that it was the mirror's power, the luck that had been bestowed upon her that Sirius returned her feelings and she knew that, if he was free, he would meet up with her.

"Thursday? Hmm…" He poured the tea in to a blue mug and asked over his shoulder how she liked it – she blinked in confusion, thinking that the tea he was making had been for himself, but then she remembered the coffee that he had been drinking earlier and a place inside her warmed at the fact that he had made her tea; while it was a small gesture, it was a thoughtful one nonetheless and it cheered her up immensely. "Well, I'm at work in the morning till dinner and then for the rest of the day, nothing. I was thinking of hooking up with James. Unless, of course, you have a better idea?" He asked, quirking his eyebrow in a way that had most women swooning and Hermione grinned at the lack of effect it had on her.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to meet up at the Triwand? At about 3ish?" She asked politely, trying to stop down the little swirl of fear in her heart that anticipated his rejection.

"I think that's an excellent idea!" He said and Hermione smiled at him again. She was finding it hard to not smile whenever Sirius was around.

Half an hour later, just as Sirius was getting ready to go to work, he asked her a question that had her stalling for a second: "Is this a date-date? Or a friend-date?"

Honestly? She had no clue. She knew that she needed to get a move on to get with Sirius, but she knew, in both her mind and her heart, that it wasn't that easy. There were so many things stopping her, such as her lingering feelings for Ron (even thinking his name sent a small spasm of pain through her veins) and her knowledge that Sirius' feelings were based solely on the mirror's luck; otherwise Sirius wouldn't have looked at Hermione twice that day in the pub.

Would he?

"Friend-date." She eventually responded and Sirius nodded in understanding, moving closer to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his side. She raised her eyebrows in slight shock and she could hear Sirius' chuckle in his chest where her ear was pressed against it.

"What? A friend can't give his friend a hug? What is wrong with the World if that's getting questioned?" He teased and Hermione relaxed against him, realising that it was simply a friendship gesture and she returned his hug, wrapping her arm around his waist.

A part of her didn't want to let go of him – she felt safe and whole in his arms. Sirius was the one who dropped his arm, but not without giving her a slight squeeze and a kiss on her cheek before stepping from her apartment and closing the door quietly behind him. She leaned against the door and breathed out, trying to stop the frantic beating of her heart – was the mirror's luck affecting her as well?

She shook her head and, seeing the time and knowing that if she didn't get ready now she'd be late for work, she tried to get rid of all thoughts of Sirius from her mind and set about her daily morning routine.

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Sirius dropped into his seat behind his desk at work and sighed, leaning back against the leather chair – while seeing Hermione that morning had been a great start to the day, sleeping on the sofa had not been comfortable and his back was protesting.

"You're getting old," James sniggered to himself as he sat behind his own desk and his response was to throw a quill at his best friend – he felt some satisfaction when it bounced off the centre of his best friends forehead.

"I'm barely twenty!" Sirius argued, shaking his head in amusement at his best friend.

"Well, it's older then nineteen!" James taunted and leaned back in his chair, linking his fingers behind his head and resting his feet on top of the desk before him.

Sirius smirked and copied James' pose, but doing so with much more grace – James looked a bit like a gust of wind would knock him from his perch, whereas Sirius was elegantly leaning back, giving the appearance of someone strong and steady. "Dude, wait. When you have a screaming baby, a hormonal wife and a 9-5 job, you'll be looking a little worse for wear while I'll be looking fresh, driving my motorbike around the streets of London, a beautiful girl behind me." He taunted lightly.

James couldn't help the grin that escaped when Sirius mentioned his future son and Sirius scoffed in amusement at the love-sick expression on his face. "It'll be worth it." James said proudly and Sirius couldn't help but agree with him. "Say, dear brother-of-sorts of mine…"

"Hmm?" Sirius asked closing his eyes against the blinding sun coming in through the windows, glinting off the bay window before them.

"Is the beautiful girl behind you Hermione, by any chance?" James grinned, a mischievous glint in his eye, but that was quickly removed by the quill holder that Sirius threw straight at him, hitting him on the chin.

Sirius ignored James outcry and focused instead on Hermione – the girl had just walked into his life and he was betting that she was going to be staying for a while. As he ignored James complaining in the background, he tried to ignore the pull on his stomach that he felt every single time that he thought about her. He'd never been this attracted to a girl in so little time based on something other than her looks. He liked spending time with her, whether it be looking at the stars, helping her move her stuff or having a 'friend-date'.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Kingsley marching into their little office, purple robes sweeping along behind him.

"Kingsley! To what do we owe the pleasure?" James asked, still frowning at Sirius across the room, who was a picture of innocence. Kingsley raised his issue, but didn't press the issue.

"Suspected Death Eaters spotted." He said simply, crossing his arms over his broad chest, "near Diagon Alley." Sirius and James both looked at the black man for further instructions, but Kingsley didn't elaborate.

"Go on then, bring them in." He prompted and James and Sirius rose from their respective desks and James was grumbling under his breath that he didn't know that they were suddenly a chauffeur service and Kingsley lightly slapped the back of his head.

James pouted as he rubbed the back of his head before following Sirius out of the room, heading, once again for the apparition points.

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When Hermione arrived at work this morning, she was surprised to see a small brunette woman behind the till that morning instead of Remus.

"Good morning, you must be Hermione!" The woman greeted cheerfully, "I'm Alison, but you can call me Ali." She said cheerfully, extending her hand for Hermione to shake. Hermione's blank expression made Ali laugh and she put her hands on her hips. "What, you thought that you and Remus where the only workers here? This is a pretty big shop, Hermione." Ali teased lightly and Hermione relaxed marginally.

"I didn't put much thought into it to be 100% honest," Hermione admitted sheepishly, unwinding her scarf from around her neck – while it was bright and sunny outside, the wind was trying its hardest to create a chill in London and scarfs and gloves were very much needed.

Ali's blue eyes sparkled as she watched Hermione dump her stuff just under the till and grab her work robes, pulling them on without pause before making her way to the shelves to see which books needed re-stocking and which ones needed re-ordering. "I've been on holiday over Christmas, visiting family and what not, so I had to leave the shop in Remus' hands and it seems that Rachel left while I was away because I came back yesterday to Remus' Patronus informing me that he'd hired a new girl!" She said all of this very fast as she followed Hermione to the backroom, seeming happy, almost ecstatic to have somebody to talk to and Hermione's lips twitched in amusement.

"So, where have you been all my life?" Hermione giggled at Ali's wording and told her the same story that she had practically perfected and could recite in her sleep. "Ah, so you speak French?" She asked excitedly, leaning against the wall of the back room as she rolled her sleeves of her blue jumper up.

"Kind of. Will Remus be in today?" The truth was that she could speak small amounts of French, from trips to France with her parents and from living with Fleur for so long – she had just picked up bits and pieces of French and she could grasp what the conversation was about, but she wasn't fluent in it.

"He should be," Ali shrugged and brushed a hand through her long hair as the bell above the door jingled happily and Ali almost skipped back to serve who had just walked in. Even from in the back room, Hermione could hear Ali's call of: "Hello! What can I do for you today?"

She smiled and shook her head lightly, tying her hair in a rough low ponytail at the base of her neck and setting off to work.

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"You know, it would have helped so much if Kingsley had told us where…" James said as he huffed a sigh.

"…Or told us who the suspected D.E's were…" Sirius agreed, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans up to his knuckles and kicking a tiny stone on the path.

"…Or when they'd been seen…" James said, his hazel eyes darting left and right as he attempted to see any hooded figure in their path. He and Sirius had been on this wild goose chase for about an hour and it annoyed Sirius that they simply couldn't send a Patronus in case it became intercepted and apparition might alert the suspected Death Eaters that they were on their case.

In other words, they had to make do with what they had.

"I wish I had my baby." Sirius said longingly, thinking of his motorbike parked in front of his house, all shiny and black and an absolute pleasure to ride…Sirius was brought out of his thoughts by James hand clamping tightly onto his arm and pulling him roughly around a corner and pressed into a wall. "James, man what the Hell?"

James didn't respond, but placed a single finger to his own lips – _be quiet_ – was his silent translation and Sirius trusted James' judgement, reaching for his wand hidden up his sleeve. _I got your back_.

James tilted his head to the left and Sirius understood his message perfectly. _Take that side. Listen._

It was scary how well they knew each other. In response, Sirius slid against the opposite wall and peeked out just so and he spotted what James had a moment ago – Adrian Tate and Reece Traviston where just leaving a building further down the street. He nudged James' foot lightly with his own. _I see them._

James raised his eyebrow, a quick jerk of his muscles. _Still there?_

Sirius raised both of his eyebrows and rolled his eyes. _What do you think? _Even silently, the message of sarcasm still got across with those two boys.

James huffed lightly and flickered his eyes to where the suspected were still stood, talking animatedly to the other (although James with his back to the scene didn't know that). _I can't see them. Jerk. _

Sirius' mouth twitched slightly at the corner. _Bitch. _

Before James could respond Sirius saw that the Suspected had pulled up their hoods and where walking briskly down the street, away from them – towards Diagon Alley. Sirius inched out slowly and saw the building that they had exited. It was a Dark Arts shop, one that mirrored Borgin and Burkes.

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Hermione was humming to herself as she organised the books on the shelf in the 'Gardening' section, listening to Remus and Ali chat amongst themselves as she alphabetised the authors and took a second to admire the cursive on the spines of the books – while gardening books weren't in her list of books to read, she could admire the beauty of them and the smell of unread books was probably one of Hermione's favourite scents.

"Hermione, what do you say to a work dinner? Tomorrow night at 8?" Ali called over and Hermione smiled at the idea. As she turned to confirm that she would, indeed, love to go, the glass in the windows shattered as a deafening explosion boomed outside.

**A/N: **_Ahh, I'm sorry this took a while – college has started back up again for me and it's madness I'm telling you – I went back last Thursday and already I've been given essays to do and things to research :/ Life of a student, I suppose…_

_I hope you like this! Happy reading!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	7. The Friendship

**Disclaimer**: _I do not own anything Harry Potter related. The only thing I own here are the original characters and the plot, but most of them are based on real people and I'm sure that someone, somewhere has had the same idea._

**Playing God**

**Chapter 7**

Sirius and James had tailed the suspected Death Eaters down Diagon Alley and waited for probable cause to bring them in – while Kingsley had asked them to pick them up, they couldn't do so without reason – being suspected wasn't exactly a crime. They got their reason when they saw Adrian Tate reach into the deep pockets of his sleeve and pull out a vial full of fizzing black liquid; Sirius and James recognized it, had dealt with it before and knew exactly what it was – _Ignis_.

They had reacted instinctively, not worried about being discovered by the suspected Death Eaters as the only thing on their minds at the minute was to keep the passer-by's, who were completely ignorant about the whole thing, safe from harm.

They both threw up a protective shield as they ran foreword, dodging people who were still unawares just as the vial was launched through the air and hit the shield of the protective enchantments, which they hadn't recognised had been put up. Sirius felt the usual rush of exhilaration when he went on missions like this, loved the thrill of the chase as he pushed people out of his way, ignoring the screams of shock and fear which curled into his gut and something reared in him to _protect_, and the relief he felt overwhelming as he realised that he'd saved countless people that day – this was why he loved his job so much.

They caught the suspected easily, Sirius not even getting out of breath from the long run down Diagon Alley, used to this kind of work out (from sex, to the gym he used his body regularly) and had tackled Reece Traviston to the ground with practised ease. Beside him, James had gripped the back of Tate's robes and was pulling him back, anger making his actions rough.

While Sirius enjoyed the thrill of the chase, James was the opposite. He was a lot more cautious and didn't like to throw himself immediately into the fray, intending to go back home to his wife and unborn child at the end of the day and not get carted off to the morgue at the bottom of the Ministry.

"Now, what possessed you to think you could get away with something like that on our watch?" Sirius asked, holding his hand to the back of Traviston's head, pressing it into the hard ground as he sat on his back, his weight stopping the Suspected from moving at all as he'd spelled ropes to wrap around his feet.

"Like I'd tell you anything, you filthy blood trai-" before Traviston could even finish the insult, Sirius had lifted his head up and back by the fingers tangled in his messy blonde hair and smashed his head back onto the hard floor.

"Proud of it, Traviston. I chose my side." Sirius said, feeling the anger rise up his sternum and he knew that his skin was starting to flush.

"Well, you're wrong." Traviston spat blood onto the floor and groaned in pain just as another team of Auror's, Frank Longbottom and Penelope Hyde, arrived and helped to secure the two Suspected. James must have sent for them, because Sirius hadn't even thought of it.

"Say that again when you're behind the bars of a jail cell and I'm free as a bird."

"Or a dog." James sniggered, an internal nudge at Sirius' animagus form and Sirius grinned at him, feeling his anger dissipate as his best friend teased with him.

The two best friends continued to banter as they watched Tate and Traviston get carted off to the Ministry by Frank and Penelope and, if it wasn't for the Ground Control that had to be done down Diagon Alley, Sirius and James would have gone to the Ministry.

After they gave their statements the first thing they did was put up a barrier which stopped the Media from getting to close – while they couldn't stop the papers and the wizarding wireless from getting the story, they could stop them getting in their way.

Then they made their way back to the scene to collect statements from witnesses to back up their story and to use the evidence during the trial. When they got there they were a little shocked to see that the windows of the shops nearest to where the vial had hit the shield where near enough destroyed and Sirius felt ice curl in his stomach as he saw one of the shops was Florish and Blotts.

Hermione and Remus.

He acted on auto-pilot and rushed to the entrance, cursing the glass and stone that littered the way and he roughly kicked bits of debris away, only vaguely aware of James behind him, helping him with magic – Sirius hadn't even thought to take his wand out from his sleeve, fear for his friends determining his actions as he desperately made his way into the shop, needing to see Remus and Hermione – he wasn't sure where the intense desire to protect and keep Hermione safe came from, but he didn't waste time trying to figure it out and instead burst into the shop, his grey eyes sharply scanning the scene before him.

"Remus!" He shouted, moving quickly foreword. "Hermione!"

"Back here, Sirius!" Sirius felt relief so strong that his knees almost buckled at realising that his friends were okay – any less than that and someone would have acted quicker. Unless they were both hurt, a voice whispered traitorously in his mind and he roughly pushed it away.

He made his way to the back room, James chuckling dryly beside him and Sirius shot him a slight look of contempt as he pushed the door open and stopped dead at the sight before him – Remus was kneeling before Hermione who was sat on her chair – for one mad second Sirius thought that Remus and Hermione were kissing and he felt pure anger curl in his stomach, but then Remus shifted and he felt his anger dissipate as he realised that he was holding a piece of wet cloth to Hermione's cheek.

"What happened?" He asked, pushing Remus to the side lightly and letting his eyes scan him quickly for injury before looking at Hermione, taking the wet cloth from Remus' long fingers and lifting it gently, seeing a shallow cut on her cheek.

Hermione smiled at him and gestured with her hand to the windows, "a piece of glass hit me is all. I'm lucky it didn't hit me in the eye." She said and Sirius scoffed lightly.

"Yeah, lucky." He frowned and took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, leaning her head back so he could better see with the light.

"It's fine, Sirius." Hermione whispered and Sirius sighed, letting go of her and pressing the cloth to her cheek again, lifting her small hand in his larger one and pressing it to the wet fabric, so that she was holding it there herself.

"You okay, Moony?" He called over his shoulders, his grey eyes not moving away from Hermione.

"If I said no would you rush to my side?" Remus quipped, batting his eyelashes and Sirius pushed him over effortlessly, smiling when Hermione let out a tiny giggle.

"How come my name wasn't called in loving concern?" Sirius frowned slightly and turned his head to see Ali, who he'd still assumed was on holiday.

Before he could respond, James had grabbed his collar and had yanked him up, back on his feet and was pulling him away. "Come on, Padfoot, we've got work to do." Sirius groaned and looked at Hermione again – he just wanted to stay with her, make sure she was really okay.

00000

Hermione watched James and Sirius leave the bookstore with a heavy heart – she had wanted Sirius to stay a little longer, to soothe her – yes, she hadn't needed soothing in a long time, becoming almost completely independent when Ron had been tortured into insanity, but right now, with the threat of Voldemort rising above her and the impossible task given to her, she just wanted to be held.

It was pathetic, how someone who had lived through three battles with Voldemort could be so shaken by a Death Eater attack that wasn't even on the Richter scale, but she couldn't help it – her emotions had been whacked out of synch.

She, Remus and Ali closed the store and asked any customers to come back the next day as they cleared away the mess and rubble at the front of the shop and Ali cried out in happiness at seeing that the books were unharmed.

It was tiring work and Hermione was unfortunately reminded of the destruction that befell Hogwarts castle, although not on such a grand scale. After they had repaired the window and re-created the front of the store, they were allowed to go home – the lucky thing for Hermione was that she had tomorrow off and she was grateful for it.

She walked into her apartment with a tired sigh and leaned against the door in an echo of her actions earlier that morning, letting the bag fall from her shoulder and hit the floor with a dull thud, not caring for once when things fell from it and she tiredly made her way to her bedroom. She longed for a girl-friend, one that she could confide in, but Lily was out of the question as Hermione couldn't morally hang out with her and pretend that everything was okay.

Just as she collapsed onto her bed and kicked her shoes off, the doorbell rang. Hermione groaned sharply and turned onto her side, flicking her wand so that her crème curtains closed and blocked out the mid-afternoon sun. She hoped that if she didn't move and answer the door, the person on the other end would just simply walk away.

No such luck.

After the doorbell rang for the fourth time, she rolled out of the bed reluctantly and tiredly made her way to the front door, wondering briefly to herself if she should go to the Magical Menagerie and get herself a cat to keep her company as she opened the door.

"Wow, way to keep a lady waiting." Before Hermione could even think of a response, Natalia had pushed past her and was standing in her living room, running a critical eye over the furnishings.

"I'm sorry?" Hermione guessed was the right thing to say at this point and she was rewarded when Natalia nodded at her, crossing her arms over her chest. Hermione stared blankly for a moment, wondering what exactly Natalia was doing here but before she could ask, Natalia was already talking.

"Was that Sirius Black I saw leaving your apartment this morning?" She asked and went to her couch, flopping down onto the red cushions and picking up a book that was on the coffee table before her, one that Hermione had been reading recently.

"Er…Yeah. Yes it was, can I help you?" She asked, incredibly confused as to what this woman was doing in her home and she remembered Remus' warning to her to not get on Natalia's bad side.

"Girl you've got some skill – You've barely been here 48 hours and you already got Sirius Black to raise his flagpole on your continent." Hermione couldn't help but laugh loudly at the wording and she shook her head.

"No. There was no raising of any flagpoles." She giggled and Natalia looked disappointed.

"So he didn't park his car in your garage?"

"How many euphemisms do you have?" Hermione asked, feeling the tension that had settled heavily on her shoulders relax slightly as she realised that Natalia wasn't here to cause her imminent harm or run her out of the apartment.

Natalia just grinned and raised her eyebrows, letting Hermione know without words just how many euphemisms for sex she had up her sleeve and she was suddenly, vividly reminded of Ginny.

"Oh, if Sirius hasn't got you on your back yet, trust me, it will soon happen." Natalia said, leaning her head back over the back of the couch and laying her arms flat on either side. "Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt."

Hermione snorted lightly, knowing about Sirius' reputation with girls and just how tough her mission was – sure, she could maybe get Sirius to date her, but could she get him to stay?

"Come on, we're going shopping." Natalia said out of the blue, standing and shimmying her hips slightly and her black curls swayed around her torso before she turned to Hermione with one eyebrow raised, waiting for her to respond.

"Are we?" She asked, slowly rising to her feet, trying to wrap her mind around this sudden friendship – what did she do to get on Natalia's good side?

Natalia rolled her brown eyes in response and walked to the front door, her high-heels clacking against the hard-wood floors. "Yes. Come on, I heard that Black and Potter single-handedly destroyed a few shops down Diagon Alley, so we'll go somewhere else. Hogsmeade, I think. Yeah, we'll go there. What are you doing?"

"Honestly? Wondering what you're doing here." She didn't mean to sound rude, but this was a sudden visit by someone she was told to be careful around.

Natalia rolled her eyes again, "Look, you're new, you're cute and you've got the opportunity to get Sirius hook, line and sinker. Of course I'm going to like you. Now come on, before we have a 'moment'."

Hermione blinked blankly, never feeling more stupid then her life and followed Natalia with a mindless sort of obedience, grabbing her bag absently and closing and locking her front door with her keys, checking that her wand was in her bag.

"Good. Let's go." Hermione looked at Natalia just as her fingers were enclosed around her own and she had the sudden feeling of being pulled through a very long, very thin pipe.

Shopping with Natalia had been a…new experience, she could say for certain. Natalia was liked a hyped up version of Ginny, saying what was on her mind, wearing what she wanted to wear, doing what she wanted to do – even if she was actually on your side she would speak up, tell you that you were wrong if that was the case, but Hermione knew that Natalia would defend her friends until the end.

Did this mean they were friends now? She wondered idly to herself as they made their way to a café, laden with shopping bags and some purchases that Hermione knew she would never have bought had it not been for the witch barging her way through the line to get her much needed caffeine hit.

Hermione was completely at a loss as she thought about why Natalia had chosen to befriend her…Or even if she'd done so – for all Hermione knew she was plotting out some sneak attack that would run Hermione from her own home.

"Will you stop that?" Hermione blinked and saw that Natalia was now sitting across from her, a mocha cappuccino in one hand and a pack of sugar in the other, "I'm not going to bite."

The line was something that Sirius would say followed by a - "unless you want me to, of course." Hermione chuckled as she heard Natalia and reached for the other cup that was in front of her – it held her own green tea. "I don't know why you wanted me to order you a fruity non-drink, but keep it away from me at all times."

Hermione smiled and leaned back, holding the cup to her face and inhaling one of her favourite scents in the world as she looked at the girl across from her, who was chatting absently about a nice dress that she'd seen in the window of a passing shop and she just _had_ to go back and get it. Hermione rolled her eyes lightly and knew that she was going to spend a lot of time in this woman's company.

_**A/N:** And here's chapter 7 – I hope you all like Natalia! I love her :D_

_Happy reading!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	8. The Unexpected Rain

**Disclaimer**_**:**__ I do not own Harry Potter._

**Playing God**

**Chapter 8**

Whoever was knocking on her door must have the intention to knock it down, Hermione thought to herself as she threw her Muggle magazine on the coffee table before her (that Natalia had lent to her, something about joining the world of fake eyelashes and hair extensions, something that she wasn't interested in doing) and she opened the door, not at all surprised to see Sirius leaning against the doorframe, his fisted hand raised to knock again.

He looked good, Hermione thought - this being quite a common route for her mind to take these days - looking at his black button-down shirt that was rolled up to his elbows, the thumb of his other hand hooked into the pocket of his denim jeans and his hair was tied back in a casual ponytail, wisps falling down to frame his face.

"Ah, Mr Black," She greeted him teasingly, opening the door for him to walk into her apartment, suddenly extremely aware that she was wearing pyjama's – polka dot pyjama's. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

She watched as he walked with a sort of lazy and casual swagger into her home and sat on her sofa as if he lived here. She closed the door and moved to sit beside him, tucking her cotton clad legs beneath her body and turning to face him. He quirked his eyebrow at her choice of attire and Hermione felt her skin flush slightly.

"Cute," he said, his eyes very slowly moving up her body to settle on her eyes, his steel grey meeting her warm chocolate and his lip quirked at the side when he saw that her skin had flamed. "I wanna take you out."

"Okay." She nodded, feeling a lot more at ease with Sirius lately – her mission was important and she couldn't waste time pondering if it was right or wrong, it was what needed to be done.

"I'll wait here." He said, putting his feet up on her coffee table, his boots thudding on the oak wood.

Hermione just stared at him, wondering what he was waiting for. "Right now?"

"Yes, right now. Go on and throw some clothes on…If you want, I could help you get out of these…" He said suggestively, his finger trailing along the sleeve of her red tank top and she cursed herself when she felt her skin get warmer.

"No, thankyou, that won't be necessary." She said hastily and stood quickly, "where are we going?"

"It's a surprise. Just grab some jeans, it's all good. And a nice, warm jacket, it's cold tonight."

Hermione did as she was told, running to her room and grabbing the first pair of jeans that she saw and, leaving her red tank top on, she reached the jacket closest to her, shrugging it on without pause, not noticing just what jacket she had on. She rushed back to the living room to see Sirius was reading the magazine, his eyebrows quirked.

"50 sex positions in 50 days. I'm game if you are, love." He said suggestively and Hermione rolled her eyes, but she couldn't fight the smile that was threating to appear and she gave in, shaking her head at his forwardness. "You ready?"

She nodded and grabbed her purse, throwing the strap over her head and shoulder and went to the door, but she was stopped by Sirius' hand on her forearm. She turned and looked at him and inquisitive look on her face and she watched, almost in a trance as he lifted the bag strap back over her head and shoulder and dropping it to the floor. It had snagged under her hair, pulling it up and away from her neck and once he'd pulled it free from her insane curls, they fell to frame her face again.

"Sirius, what are you doing? My money's in the-"

"You don't need it, love. I'm paying."

"Sirius, I couldn't possibly ask you to cover the whole tab!" She began to protest, but he shushed her, linking their fingers and Hermione's brain went black very quickly at the contact.

"You're not asking. I want to."

Hermione had to give in at that statement (the real truth was that she couldn't seem to form words at the moment, with him so very close to her) and she let him pull her from her home, locking it with a tap of his wand and he gently tugged her from the courtyard.

The first thing that she saw when she was out on the pavement was the gleaming black motorbike with chrome fittings sitting on the road, leaning against the pavement on the side stand. "Sirius…" She said warningly, recognising the bike – and knowing that the red button on the underside of the handlebar would make the bike _leave the floor_. To Hermione, it should have had a Skull and crossbones on it. Sirius just chuckled and lifted her onto the bike with ease before settling astride it before her, reaching behind him for her arms and winding them around his waist, pushing back just a little so that she could feel the heat of his body through the jacket that she wore.

"Hold on tight, sweetheart." He said huskily and before Hermione could protest, because this was dangerous and neither of them had protective clothing on or even helmets, he had revived the motorbike, kicked off the pavement and they were shooting down the road. Instinctively, Hermione let out a little yelp and moved even closer to Sirius, holding him so tightly it was a wonder that he didn't complain about the discomfort – Instead, he laughed out loud and urged the bike to go even faster.

"Sirius, I really don't appreciate this!" She shouted over the sound of the wind roaring in her ears and the feel of the motorbike rumbling beneath her body.

"You know that you love the thrill!" He laughed back at her, the motorbike speeding across the blacktop roads, eating up the miles.

A few minutes later (which had seemed like a lifetime to Hermione) and they pulled up into the driveway of a house, the motorbike purring contently as Sirius slowed it down and turned it with ease, kicking up the side-stand and turning it off with a flick of his wrist. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" He teased and slid from the seat, offering his hand to Hermione. She stared at it blankly for a moment before her own shaky hand reached out to meet his, their fingertips touching briefly before Sirius' whole palm met hers and pulled her off the gleaming motorbike with ease.

"Where are we?"

"Welcome to restaurant Sirius!" He said, bowing extravagantly, letting go of her hand momentarily to clap his own twice in sharp, quick succession and a hundred candles, that had been floating around on the lawn unseen by Hermione lit at once and Hermione gasped at the beauty of them as they illuminated a small table, seated for two.

"Sirius…This is…I can't believe..." She trailed off, staring at the small table, overwhelmed by the work and effort that had been put into this for her.

"Wow. Speechless. You're making this too easy, Hermione," Sirius said, taking the leather band from his hair and running his hand through the black strands, looking a little nervous at the reaction from Hermione.

"All this…For me?" She asked, moving closer to the table.

"Do you see any other beautiful brunette's around her?" He asked, sweeping his arm around to prove his point.

Hermione shook her head in amazement, wondering briefly if the magic of the mirror was really that strong that it could cause Sirius to act towards her like this. "I still can't believe it…"

"You better believe it sweetheart – I don't want you to forget this."

"I don't think I could if I tried." Hermione chuckled, sitting in the chair that Sirius had pulled out for her, watching him appreciatively as he rounded the table to his own chair.

She couldn't help but think how handsome he looked in the candlelight, making his grey eyes blaze in a way that resembled passion.

Little did she know, his thoughts were travelling down the same path, admiring the glow of her skin, the flare of her hair and he imagined ploughing his fingers through the thick locks, tilting her head back and feeding her a hot passionate kiss.

"Well, I'm sure this will help keep it ingrained in your memory." He clapped his hands twice and he watched Hermione, saw the amazement flicker across her face as the food appeared on the plates before them, seemingly blooming from the pewter as a flower would the soil.

"What a marvellous display, I'm very impressed." Hermione smiled at him, her brown eyes shining with amusement and Sirius longed to touch her.

"Well, dig in, m'lady." She didn't need telling twice, the food before her looked delicious and her suspicions were proven correct when she tasted it.

They ate their dinner while making light conversation – Sirius told her that he'd cast a shield so that the Muggles in the neighbourhood couldn't see them and Hermione told him how Flourish and Blotts was back in tip-top condition and that she'd be returning to work tomorrow.

"You're going for dinner, aren't you?" Sirius asked, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice (he was working tomorrow and couldn't have any alcohol).

"I think so – then we're still going out on Thursday, right?" She asked, and Sirius saw the shy demeanour that she usually hid come forth, as she hesitantly glanced at him.

"Thursday? Hmmm…I don't remember making plans with you for Thursday…" He said playfully, tapping his chin with his pointer finger as if he were in deep thought and Hermione laughed and threw a piece of chicken at him. "Of course we are. I was thinking my place, PJ's, a movie and some junk food." He shrugged, crossing his arms on the table and leaning forward to get closer to Hermione, "what do you think?"

"Honestly? I think that sounds like heaven." She grinned and it became infectious: Sirius felt his lips pulling up at the corner.

"I look forward to it. I'll pick you up." He didn't miss the glance to his motorbike, the gleaming black and chrome body work glinting in the soft candlelight. "Oh, come on, love –" before he could tease her like he was planning to, it seemed that the Gods were against him because before he could even blink, the heavens seemed to open up and get them both soaked within two seconds.

They looked at each other in shock for a millisecond before Hermione laughed, shaking her head and the wet tendrils of her curly hair stuck to the skin of her neck and on her cheeks and to Sirius she looked so beautiful that if this had been a cheesy romantic book, she would have taken his breath away.

"Run for cover!" She yelled, pushing away from the table and running to his front door, her laughter reaching his ears. He growled playfully and leapt after her, loving this carefree woman before him and he caught her easily, one arm hooked around her waist and he pulled her back to meet his chest just before she reached his front door.

"And where do you think you're going?" Sirius growled lightly by her ear and her giggling stopped almost straightaway. She turned in his arms but he didn't relinquish his hold on her. The rain was dancing around them, hitting the ground with a seemingly effortless rhythm, surrounding them.

"Sirius, it's raining. We should go inside and get dry," Hermione mumbled, her hands resting on his chest lightly, her fingers playing with the collar of his black shirt.

Instead of responding, he dipped his head so that his forehead touched hers gently and his obsidian black hair tangled lightly with her mess of coffee coloured curls. "Hermione," he whispered, his voice low and deep and it filled her instantly with warmth and she felt so safe and for the first time since she got to this time she didn't feel fear climb up her spine so she did the only thing that made sense to her at that moment.

She kissed him.

He responded immediately, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him so that she stood on her tip-toes, her body pressed tightly to his and she sighed in his mouth, feeling that this was _right_ as he groaned lightly, one of his hands climbing up her back and tangling in her wet hair, tilting her head even further back and granting him better access to her lips as she instinctively wrapped one leg around his hip bone Just as a flash of lightning lit the sky up momentarily like a Christmas tree and penetrated Hermione's sanity.

"Sirius," she gasped, breaking the kiss and he groaned, pressing kisses across her wet skin to the hollow just beneath her ear and she felt her knees go weak when his tongue lightly pressed against it and she felt goosebumps erupt over her skin. "Sirius, we should…We should stop."

The second that the word left her mouth Sirius did just that; he stopped.

"Yeah?" He asked, panting slightly and shaking his head to get the loose strands of hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah." She confirmed, cupping his jaw in her hand and pressing a quick kiss to the corner of his lips. He moved his head to the side and tried to chase after her mouth, but she had moved it before he could get there. "Listen, you've probably gathered by now that I'm not looking for a fling or a one-night stand and Sirius, that's what you're all about."

"I don't have to be. Hermione, I've never been unfaithful."

"And I believe you. I'm not accusing you of being a cheater, Sirius, I'm accusing you of being a womanizer and that's what you are." She said over the pounding rain and she felt Sirius' hand clutch at her just a bit tighter when thunder boomed all around them. "Sirius, you've only just met me. Maybe in a few months we can try this for real, but right now I can't trust that you won't just disappear on me after a few days with nothing to remember you by other than the rose on my pillow and your boxers thrown over my lamp."

Sirius's eyes narrowed at her words and Hermione couldn't quite hide the giggle. "Let me guess…Natalia tell you that?"

"Among other things." She smiled, moving away from him and breaking his hold, her back pressed fully to the door, "it isn't a 'no', Sirius, it's a 'wait-and-see.'" And she meant it. She knew that for this plan to work, Sirius would have to fall in love with her and he couldn't do that right now because he wasn't in the right mind-frame to do so, but Hermione would wait for him – she was starting to understand that Sirius was a man worth waiting for. "Now can we please go inside? I'm freezing!"

00000

"And then what?" Natalia asked as she leaned forward, her elbows on the kitchen table in front of her, her dark eyes searching Hermione's face, absorbed in the story that she was being told.

"We went inside, had some drinks, made plans for Thursday and then he took me home on that stupid contraption and that was it." Hermione answered, lifting the kettle before it whistled shrilly and went about making herself some tea.

"That was it?" Natalia asked incredulously, staring at Hermione as if she were an alien. "That was it?"

Hermione hopped up onto her chair opposite Natalia and sipped her tea, nodding as she did so. "That was it."

"Are you a real woman?" Hermione was so taken aback by this (serious) question that she choked on her tea and nearly fell off her chair.

"Of course I'm a real woman!" Hermione spluttered, half offended and half amused. "What on Earth made you question this?"

"You walked away!" Natalia said like it was the most obvious thing in the World and she shook her head in what looked like shame at her Hermione's logic. "Please tell me that you'll be on all fours on Thursday?"

"Natalia!" Hermione felt her skin flush at both the words and the image that floated to the front of her mind, "do you have to be so crass?"

Natalia just shrugged and took a long gulp of her black coffee and, after flipping her hair over her shoulder, proceeded to tell her, in great detail, what a giving lover Sirius Black was.

**A/N:** _I know, I know, I'm incredibly late. I have no excuse, but, in what I hope appeases you all, I have another chapter to put up today – it should be done in the next few hours! So sorry!_

_Kelly_

_xxx _


	9. The Nightmare

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own any Harry Potter characters, but I wouldn't mind taking Sirius home :D_

**Weight of the World **

**Chapter 9**

"_Come on, Mudblood – Where did you get the swo—?" The rest of the word was drowned out by my own scream as agony rippled across her body, relentless – Can anybody hear me? Why wasn't anyone helping me? What sword? What was she talking about, I didn't know, where did I get _what_ sword?_

"_I don't…I can't…" She gasped, tears falling rapidly from her eyes as she tried to breathe, her lungs feeling like lead, deadweight…Where was she? _

"_LIAR!" She barely had time to prepare before another scream was drawn from her almost lifeless body and she writhed in unbearable pain, wishing that it would end, why wasn't it ending, God please, let it end…_

"_Hermione!" Her name. But who was it? Who was shouting for her, screaming for her, sounding as if they were in pain too…_

"_Hermione!"…Ron. Her Ron. Was he okay? Merlin, where was he? He was trying to get to her, that she was sure of, but before she could let her train of thought of continue, her arm was suddenly on fire and she screamed again, wondering how her vocal chords where still intact – how long had it been? It felt like hours. _

"_Hermione!" Ron, I can hear you, I'm here, still here…Where is here? "Wake up!"_

_Wake-up? She was asleep? Her body listed to the side, boneless, weak, unmovable. "Found…We found…" Where, where did you find it Hermione? Come on, think! Think! Think! "Copy!" She gasped out, "it's just a…Just a copy…"_

"_Hermione! Wake-up now, for Merlin's sake!"_

Hermione's eyes shot open and she sat up straight, feeling her sweat dripping down her body and she gasped in pain and terror, scrambling away from the foreign hands on her shoulders and her eyes darted around the unfamiliar room. Where was she?

"Hermione?" She knew that voice. The sarcastic, bitchy tone was now soothing and comforting and her eyes settled on Natalia sat on the edge of the bed in her purple silk nightie, her hands held up in front of her in an unthreatening gesture.

The recognition of her surroundings and where and _when _she was hit her like a freight train and she closed her eyes in relief at not being where she was…A Dream. It was only a dream. "Hermione, what the Hell was that?" Ahh, the sarcastic, bitchy tone was back. Hermione was surprised to find that she was strangely thankful for it at that moment.

"Just a nightmare, Nat. It's fine."

"No, it isn't, and don't call me Nat, _Herm_." Hermione rolled her eyes at the childish banter and got out of her bed on shaky legs, making to go to her kitchen for a much needed cup of tea, one that would calm her nerves and soothe her psyche.

God, she felt like Trelawney.

"Hermione. I know that we met, like, a week ago, but if something's troubling you or keeping you up at night, you know you can share it with me."

Hermione was shocked by her friends' declaration but she appreciated it so much. She had the sudden urge to just cry and throw herself at Natalia, hugging her new friend for all she was worth.

Instead she nodded and smiled brightly at Natalia. "I know, Nat."

"Whatever, Herm," was the flippant reply, but Hermione could see the teasing gleam in her dark eyes.

"Hey, how did you get in here?" She asked, suddenly realising that Natalia was in her bedroom and that she didn't have keys to the front door.

"Merlin, are you a witch or aren't you?" Natalia asked, producing her wand from her thigh holster and patting Hermione lightly on the cheek with the tip of her wand. "For such a smart woman you really can be blonde sometimes." Natalia laughed, sliding her wand back into the black holster and sauntering past Hermione to the living room, sitting herself on the couch and reaching for the book that Hermione had been reading just before she went to bed.

Hermione rolled her eyes again and made her way to the kitchen and prepared them both drinks in a mirror image of what she'd done earlier and brought them both back into the living room. "So, if you're not a Slytherin, what house where you in?"

"Please – we're close, but we're not that close." Natalia said, flipping through the book, her eyes skimming the words briefly before jumping to the next page.

"Fine. I'll just ask Sirius. I'm sure that I can persuade him to tell me."

Natalia narrowed her eyes at her and let them flicker back to the page in front of her. "Go do that. I'm sure you'll both get something _satisfying_ out of it."

"I hate you." Hermione said cheerily, sipping from her tea.

"Say that again next time I wake up to your screams and attempt to rescue you." Though the words were said teasingly, Hermione could hear the seriousness behind them – she'd scared her friend and she felt guilty about it – could feel the guilt twisting around in her stomach and she felt the intense need to apologize.

"Nat, I'm so-"

"Say you're sorry and I'll throw this mug of steaming hot black coffee at you."

"Noted."

"Come on then, bitch – get talking." Natalia said, raising one eyebrow and settling back against the couch cushions, hands wrapped around the ceramic of the mug of coffee, patiently waiting for Hermione to start talking.

"How come you're the only one who heard? Shouldn't have the others heard me as well?" Hermione asked, hoping that this would detour Natalia's question – while she felt close to Natalia, she had only just met her and didn't feel comfortable telling her this at all.

"Steven's working at Spellbound tonight, Remus is at the Potter's, Caitlyn and Jack are at her parent's house and Cal is probably zonked out from all the partying he did the other night." Natalia reeled off and Hermione was impressed at how much Natalia knew about the other people in the building. "So, enough distracting – talk."

"Nat, listen –"

"I'll tell you what house I was in at Hogwarts."

"Nice try – I'm not that curious." Hermione was lying through her teeth, but there was no way she was sharing that information so soon with anyone - if she'd even share it at all.

00000

"Is she really?" Hermione asked Remus, surprised at the answer to the question she'd just asked; what house was Natalia in?

Remus chuckled and nodded levitating a pile of books to the room at the back of the store and he waved his wand, making them all shuffle and sort themselves out alphabetically. "Not a lot of people would guess that, and whenever anyone mentions it she looks like she's about to turn into a vulture, but that's the house she was in."

"I don't get why she's embarrassed by it." Hermione said, checking the money in the till, "it's not like it's terrible."

"No, but it distorts her 'bad-girl image.'" Remus told her, "she'd much rather not tell anyone and have them assume Slytherin then let anyone know that she's a – Speak of the devil!" Remus said delighted as the door opened and Natalia stepped through, looking as stunning as ever. She raised an eyebrow at him in a cool manner before sashaying up to the till and right in front of Hermione.

"Come on then, Herm, let's go to lunch." Natalia said in a bored voice, waving her hand as if she was indifferent to the meeting – when in actuality, it was Natalia who suggested that they meet up for Lunch today.

"Remus, can you hold the fort?" Hermione asked reaching for her coat.

Remus looked slowly to his left and then to his right before looking over his shoulder at the empty shop. "Well, there doesn't seem to be a stampeded – I think I can manage." He grinned, "if I need you, just look for the silver wolf," he said cheerily before waving them goodbye.

Hermione chuckled lightly as she wound her scarf around her neck and wondering briefly how Natalia could be outside in this weather with only a think jacket on over a loose tank top. When Hermione had arrived here, the weather had been unseasonably warm for January, but it seemed that the weather was done playing nice and it had turned around a full 180 – the wind bit into the exposed skin of Hermione's hands before she had a chance to pull her gloves on.

"So, where to?" Natalia asked, head held high as her dark eyes looked down the streets at all the shoppers and passer-by's, grinning as a particularly handsome man walked past. "Wherever he's going would be great."

Hermione rolled her eyes and hooked her arm through Natalia's, pulling her in the opposite direction, towards her favourite place and the place that felt like home to her; The TriWand.

The second that Hermione and Natalia stepped through the threshold of the warm, homely pub, she was engulfed in the wide open arms of Madame Rosmerta and she happily let herself be hugged by the woman that had given her a home.

"Hermione, dear! I'm so glad to see you! It's been awhile, huh?" Rosmerta said, despite the fact that it had only been a week since she moved into her own apartment, Hermione didn't say anything. When they pulled apart and smiled warmly at each other, Natalia coughed impatiently, reminding Hermione that she was still there.

"Oh, Rosmerta this is Natalia – she's my neighbour. Rosmerta took me in when I first got to London." Hermione said, feeling admiration and fondness for the older woman settle in her heart next to the open space she felt when she thought of the friends and family that she had left behind.

"Pleasure." Natalia said and even though it was said in a 'couldn't-care-less' tone, Hermione heard the hidden thanks beneath.

Hermione smiled and looked at the pub, trying to find an open table when she stopped short, feeling half annoyed and half-satisfied at what she saw.

Sirius Black was sat in the TriWand, hidden away in a dark alcove with a blonde haired, blue eyes beauty with legs that went on forever and a chest that most girls would be envious of.

"Bastard." Natalia whispered behind her but Hermione barely heard – she'd known that Sirius would be hard to get but at the same time she had thought that the luck of the mirror would just guide Sirius to her – that was when she realised the true power of the mirror; it would pull him to her, settle her in his mind, but she had to tie the knot. She had to make him fall in love with her.

And as she watched Sirius lean into the blonde and press a kiss to the hollow of her ear, she realised that she had no idea how to do that.

_**A/N**__: I know I know – "I'll have it up in a couple of hours." All I can say about that is – I suck. _

_On the other hand, it's half-term for me now (yay!), so hopefully I'll have more chapters up – Although I really can't promise anything. _

_Thanks for reading! Love you all!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	10. The Coffee Date

**Disclaimer**_**:**__ I don't own Harry Potter_

**Playing God**

**Chapter 10**

Hermione hadn't been all that surprised when she saw Sirius with the blonde woman (Melanie Fraiser, Natalia supplied her name mid-rant, using some pretty colourful terms to describe her old school friend) but that didn't mean that she didn't feel betrayed. Sirius was meant to be seeing her and she couldn't help but feel used, like she was just a plaything for him until someone else snaked their way into his bed.

"Earth to Hermione," Remus chuckled and Hermione blinked slowly, as if coming to realisation of where she was, "I was wondering where you'd gotten off to."

"Sorry Remus, it's just one of those days." Hermione said with a sheepish smile and Remus chuckled again, deep and throaty and Hermione couldn't remember adult Remus Lupin chuckling at anything. It was nice to hear.

"I hear you. Still, at least you're gonna get cosy with Sirius tonight – I'm sure that'll improve your mood." Hermione didn't quite have the heart to tell him that she'd cancelled the date this morning, sending her Patronus to his work and not reading the letter she got in return literally minutes afterword – It was a shame really, Hermione thought as she restocked the divination books, she really had been looking forward to it.

"Er…Excuse me." Hermione turned at the sound of the voice and was surprised when she had to tilt her head back to look at his face and was pleasantly surprised when she saw that it was Cal, from the top floor of her and Natalia's apartment complex. "Oh, hello. I didn't know you worked here." He said cheerily, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the bookshelves, startling Hermione ever so slightly.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I got the job pretty much the same time that I moved here."

"Impressive," he smiled and Hermione was almost blinded by his pearly white teeth, "why choose a bookstore?" He asked and Hermione recognised that it wasn't asked in a condescending way – more that he was generally curious as to her career choice.

"I love them," she smiled, dusting her hands off slightly and leaning against the bookcase, "the way that they pull at your imagination or tell you something useful. They're constant and just overflowing with information and I'm rambling," she paused, laughing slightly to herself.

"I don't mind. You're passionate about it, ramble all you like."

"How can I help you?" Hermione asked pleasantly and she watched in amusement as Cal reached back behind his head to rub lightly at his neck in what she could only assume was embarrassment – what on earth did he have to be embarrassed about? Hermione wondered briefly as she noted the way his dark brown eyes shifted to the side.

He coughed uncomfortably and shifted from one foot to another before he spoke, "well, it's my niece's birthday and she's a kickass reader, so do you have anything in the form of…pink and…err…glitter?" Hermione couldn't help but compare the way that he asked that to how Sirius would. He would walk in, head held high and a smirk on his lips as he asked her that question, eyebrow quirked in amusement at fulfilling the request of his niece, not at all feeling emasculated at the girlyness of the book.

But Cal was so adorable and awkward in the way that he asked her that made her lips quirk up in response. "Of course we do. How old is she?"

"Five." He seemed relieved that she didn't outright laugh at him (which she would never do, of course) and followed her to the right side of the shop where the children books were stored. There was actually a wide range of story books for children that fascinated Hermione to no end and she half-wished that she had been allowed to witness this magic at a young age – her first experience with magic was when she was eight and she blew up her grandfather's tea pot when he took away her fairy-tale book because she was, as he said, ignorant to the guests there at his birthday gathering. She didn't even know most of them and, to this day, she still felt that it wasn't a justified reason to take away a little girls book.

"That's the perfect age for readers to be encouraged, so I'd suggest something with more words than pictures, no matter how pleasing it is to the eye." She found herself rambling as she reached for a book and handed it to Cal with confidence, "this story is about a unicorn, but it teaches young children to share with each other, which is something that not a lot of five year olds know how to do."

"You got that right. The little brat just loves to pretend to give you something and then runs off laughing her pretty little head off. It started off cute, but now it's just annoying," Cal told her, flipping through the book, "are you sure that this isn't a little bit too sad?"

Hermione loved this book – she isn't ashamed to say that she had read a few of them, despite being well above the recommended age, but she couldn't help it; a part of her had needed to know if these wizarding books held the same fairy-tale aspect and morals weaved between the words that Muggle stories did.

Turns out, they were a lot more literal and straight forward with their message, as she found out by Ursula the Unicorn feeling left out because her friends refused to share their sweets and Ursula wanted to hide away for days and days because she couldn't face the humiliation and pain of seeing the people that she had thought accepted her, but instead rejected her. In the end, they never did share and Ursula grew up believing that she wasn't good enough to share with and hadn't left her home for over twenty years until a little girl stumbled upon her den and offered her some biscuits – sharing. So, it was a technical happy ending, but it took a hell of a long time to get there.

"Honestly, it is sad, but it has such an impact that I guarantee she'll be sharing everything with you. Of course, if you feel that her parents might slice you in half, then you get her another?" She offered lightly, scratching at the inside of her elbow absent-mindedly, used to dealing with uncertain customers. She took no offence if they didn't choose the book that she selected, but they always seemed to think that they'd hurt her in some way.

"My sister does have a mean severing charm," Cal laughed, hooking his thumb in his belt loop, the book held loosely in his other hand as his eyes scanned the expansive bookcase, "how about this and a bright pink one? I know that I'm a manly man who shouldn't be carrying pink, but it's what her little heart wants, and I love her to pieces."

Her heart practically swelled at the care and affection that Cal so obviously held for his niece and Hermione felt like they had reached a reasonable compromise and, because he was her neighbour and lived in the flat above hers, she offered to cut 50% off of one of his purchases.

He chose Twinkle Rain, a story about a beautiful star called rain who spread happiness wherever he went and, whenever you opened the book, glitter practically exploded, but vanished before it hit the floor – which was handy for clean-ups.

While she was ringing his purchases up, they chatted amicably about his niece – Janelle – and he painted her to be such a good hearted but evil child destined for a life of Slytherin. "What house were you in?" She asked as she slashed 50% off of Twinkle Rain and totalled the price as Cal dug in the pockets of his jeans for 1 Galleon and 3 Sickles.

"Wit beyond Measure is Man's greatest treasure," he said without pause, sliding the right amount across the counter, his rings flashing in the sunlight streaming through the newly repaired windows.

"Ahh, Ravenclaw." She smiled, "you know, I almost –" she stopped herself short with a jolt to her heart – she was about to tell Cal that she had almost sorted into Ravenclaw during her sorting before she realised that she didn't go to Hogwarts in this time – she was a Beauxbatons student through and through and it would do her good to actually remember that.

"Almost, what?" He asked intrigued, leaning his elbow on the counter as Hermione shook her head as unease started to curl up in her stomach.

"Oh…Err, I almost went to Hogwarts and I think that I would have liked to have been in Ravenclaw." She prayed silently that he didn't question her and she was relieved when he smiled, his hand reaching to slip through the handles of the paper bag offered to him that held his books – this bags had handily been charmed so that the rain wouldn't penetrate it and rip it pieces; she hated that when it happened in the Muggle World.

"We would have been happy to have you." He said back with a grin and Hermione felt the tension that had tightened her shoulders as soon as she noticed her slip up release at his kind words, and a gentle smile pulled at her lips in thanks. "So…I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee sometime?" He asked and Hermione blinked at him for a moment before nodding her head in agreement.

It would be nice, she thought, to get to know her neighbours – although she wished that she knew what would happen to them in the future, because she didn't want to get hurt if they got ripped away from her by Death Eaters in the near future. On the other hand, it was a good thing that she didn't know his fate, she thought as she watched him push his hair away from his eyes, because if he were to be a victim of Voldemort's reign, she would be none the wiser and wouldn't feel the tremendous swirl of guilt low in her stomach that she knows she will on 30th October 1980.

"Sure," she smiled, "how's tomorrow sound?"

00000

"Girl, you move around fast!" Natalia said after Hermione had told her that she was going for coffee with Cal tomorrow, "first Sirius and now Cal."

"Wait…What are you talking about?" Hermione asked perplexed as she stirred the sugar into her much needed coffee. At 1pm today, just as Hermione's lunch break was starting, Natalia burst into the shop and dragged her bodily into the cute little café called _firmitas _which Hermione loved because it had such a homely, cosy feeling to it.

"Oh, are we playing all coy and innocent? An interesting tactic…Not one that I'd use myself but, I can't exactly knock you for it when it's so obviously working," Natalia grinned as she counted out her Galleons – she was planning on going shopping after Hermione returned to work for the rest of the day. Hermione had no idea what Natalia did for work, or if she worked at all, but she had a steady stream of money that never seemed to run out; just the other day she bought a pair of boots which knocked her back 100 Galleons and here she was with another hoard of money, ready to spend it on something else.

"Tactic?" Hermione shook her head in amusement at her friend, "Natalia, it's just coffee. There is no tactic."

Hermione was surprised when Natalia rolled her eyes before shoving her money back into her grey leather pouch and reaching for her own coffee. "Oh, sweetie, you're so naïve." She chuckled and Hermione felt slightly offended at this choice of words – she had fought a war, for Merlin's sake, she wasn't exactly ignorant to the ways of life. "Coffee to a man is essentially this…" Natalia cleared her throat and, when she spoke again it was in a much deeper voice, "Hey, you wanna go out for coffee? Awesome. Hey, you wanna go back to my place for crazy, hot sex? Cool."

"Natalia!" Hermione couldn't help but blush as the people closest to them turned to look at them in confusion, their eyebrows raised. "It isn't like that," she said quietly, her fingers playing with the handle of her mug.

"Hermione, for most men, it's always like that." She chuckled again, sipping from her own mug which had iridescent pink sparkles, that were giving Hermione a much un-needed headache. "Anyways, I say go for it."

"Nat, I'm not going to just … _go for it_." Hermione could feel the blush moving across her cheeks and down to her neck and she knew, but Natalia's deep, throaty chuckle that it was visible to the world.

"Why not? You're young, healthy, free, sexy, awesome and he's young, healthy, free, sexy, awesome and he can play the guitar! Hey, this just goes to show that he'll know exactly how to work those fingers to give you the time of your whole entire life."

Hermione just stared at Natalia as if she'd just announced to the whole café that she was engaged to Voldemort and having his and Bellatrix LeStrange's Love Child. "Oh, Hermione, you're twenty years old, surely you get how this works?"

She couldn't put into words how confused and out of synch she felt whilst having this conversation – she was quite happy with just going along for coffee with Cal but now, Natalia just blew that out of the water. She knew that her friend loved sex, had it on a frequent basis so really, Hermione shouldn't really be surprised when Natalia let her mind jump straight there, but she still found it incredibly irritating.

"Besides, it'll be good to get back at Sirius."

_Get back at Sirius_…Those words seemed to play again and again in her mind and she felt like she was transported back to the moment when she saw Sirius press his lips to behind the blonde girls ear.

"Natalia…I'm not going out with Cal to get back at Sirius. We aren't in a relationship and –"

"I call Bullsh-"

"Natalia, will you stop it! We went on one date which, I would like to point out wasn't an official date anyway, so I can't deny him the chance of being with someone else. How is that fair?"

Hermione couldn't help but feel the sting of rejection as she thought back to the Triwand – she knew that this wasn't going to be the easiest job in the World, but she had been hoping that it wouldn't be quite so…hurtful. No, she didn't love Sirius and no, she didn't particularly want to be in a relationship with him…that being said she _had_ felt like they had shared a connection, and it pained her slightly that he could just throw the feelings away like that – especially because she knew that it wasn't one sided, that the mirror was stirring up some feelings there inside him about her. She wasn't alone in this.

At the same time, she was painfully aware about how alone she was in this.

"Listen, _Herm_, you and _Siri_ are playing a game of cat and mouse…and right now, he's acting like a dog."

00000

Remus looked up from the inventory as the door to Florish and Blotts opened and Sirius practically stomped his way inside, banging his feet lightly on the door edge to dislodge some snow that had stuck to his boots. In his hands, he was carrying two to-go mugs of coffee and Remus, not for the first time, sent a silent pray of thanks to the Muggle World for the invention of this glorious, amazing drink.

"Where's Hermione?" Remus retracted his thanks and instead, cursed Sirius for his one track mind.

"She's on her Lunch break. Thanks for the coffee." He reached for it with eager hands and Sirius let him take it, chuckling slightly as he shook his head, his hair falling into his eyes. He leaned backwards against the counter and took a sip of his own drink, his grey eyes scanning the bookstore, cataloguing the shoppers who were in there, like a true Auror has to.

Sirius cleared his throat as a red-headed woman walked by, winking subtly at him. Remus rolled his own eyes as he saw that Sirius' were fixed to her and he smacked the back of his head. Hard.

"Ow! What in Merlin's saggy left –"

"Sirius, this is a bookstore, not a brothel." Remus said easily, sipping more of his coffee.

"Oh, shut up, Moony."

Remus grinned into his drink at Sirius' comeback and couldn't help but shake his head in fondness for his best friend…Until he heard his next words. "So, dear friend of mine, do you know why Hermione's been all distant with me?"

There was a reason, beside his obvious furry problem, why he was single.

"I don't know…Maybe it has to do with you not being able to tear your eyes away from other women." He said this as a blonde woman walked by this time that even made Remus look twice, and he was left wondering when the hell his bookshop became a magnet for single, attractive women.

Sirius frowned and turned his whole body to look at him, his hand clenching around his to-go mug with a look of annoyance on his face. "I'm a hot blooded man, Remus, what do you expect me to do?"

"Why are you asking me?" Remus asked in annoyance, wondering where the Hell Ali was and just why he was being left alone to fend off the relationship questions.

"Because you see her all the time, practically every day," Sirius told him, his tone suggesting that that much was just plain obvious.

Remus was starting to get bored with this conversation, and the coffee was proving futile in giving him the kick he very much needed today. "Well, I won't be seeing her tomorrow. It seems that Cal Heartway will though."

"Cal? The guy who lives above her? What?" Sirius looked angry and Remus couldn't help the little smile pull at the corners of his lips. If this was going to help him realise that Hermione wasn't going to wait around forever, Remus didn't know what would – A knock to Sirius' ego was always the way forward.

"She's a hot blooded woman, Sirius, what do you expect her to do?"

**A/N:** _Okay, first of all, I'd like to say – Hey!_

_Secondly, I know that it's been a really, really long time, but I have to tell you the reason why I stopped writing – it doesn't have anything to do with being too busy, or any personal things happening, my computer didn't break, I didn't forget about this story and I didn't have major writer's block. _

_On the contrary, I had a whole load of ideas about this story, but I stopped writing it because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. Everything felt forced and I didn't think it was fair to give you something that wasn't 100% to my abilities and my character's portrayal. Writing this story was becoming a chore, something that I had to do, so I stopped writing it until I felt in a place where I could return and do so with justice. _

_I know to a few of you that will sound lame, but it's kinda like being given an essay for homework, that _has_ to be 4'000 words and _has_ to be done by the next week and there is no option about that – so you put it off for ages and then you don't start it until about five hours before it's due in…Then I realised that I didn't have to write this by a certain deadline because I didn't technically have one. I hope that you can understand that. _

_Thank you for those who have been patient and waiting for me to update this story, so here you go. I am sorry that it took so long and I'm sorry that I really only have a filler chapter to give you. I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but I'm back into the swing of things and I found that I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and I did so in two days. _

_I really appreciate every review and every favourite, and again, I am sorry that it took me so long to start this story again, but I will finish it – I can promise you that this story will one day, be filed under complete. _

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	11. The Monsters Within Us All

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Harry Potter. Unfortunately._

**Playing God**

**Chapter 11**

When Hermione heard the knock on her door, the rapid three beats surrounding her apartment, she was both nervous and excited – she loved the thought of getting to know her neighbours, but Natalia's words from yesterday were still very much echoing in her mind, replaying over and over again.

Did Cal think that this was a date? _Was_ it a date?

Even though she was here for the rest of her life and twenty years old in this year, to her she had still technically just been born the previous September and that made both Cal and Sirius twenty years older than her. Logically, she knew that it was silly to be put off by this as it was completely irrelevant now, but she couldn't help the strange feeling that tingled down her spine at the thought.

She glanced at herself briefly in the mirror (who told her that she looked lovely) and rushed to answer the door, grabbing her bag on the way, opening the door wide to see that Cal was sat on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the courtyard. He looked up at the sound of her door and smiled at her, patting the space next to him. Hermione rolled her eyes in amusement and closed and locked her door, dropping her keys into her bag before she perched beside him, looking out of the main gates at the people walking by.

"So, where do you fancy going?" Cal asked, tapping his fingers against his knee and the glint of his rings in the cold snow and bright sun caught her attention. She glanced at his middle ring and was slightly surprised to see the image of a Phoenix engraved on his ring and Hermione wondered if he was a member of the Order, like she was sure that the Marauders and Lily were – she momentarily let her mind flash back to the picture that Harry had pinned to his wall in Shell Cottage of the old Order and Hermione mentally searched every face; Cal most definitely wasn't there.

_Come on, Hermione, he probably just saw the ring and thought it looked good. It probably has nothing to do with the Order. _

"Well, I know this cute coffee place?" She suggested and Cal nodded once, standing up and offering her his hand to help her to her feet.

She smiled her thanks and, keeping a hold of his hand, she pulled him in the direction of _firmitas_, trying to keep her mind off of the ring and trying desperately to not figure out its meaning.

Even though it probably didn't have one. She hoped.

00000

"So, what do you do for a living, Cal?" Hermione asked as they strolled down the street and she hoisted her bag further up on her shoulder, listening instinctively for the tiny hiss that her wand let out frequently that let her know that it was where it was supposed to be – a handy little trick that Neville found out a few years back. Hermione wondered if she'd ever thanked him for discovering it or spent most of the time sulking because _she_ hadn't been the one to discover it.

"Oh, well I tend to hit the bars during the night." Cal said, sliding his hands slowly into his jean pockets, a small frown on his face, "I don't get paid much, but it pays the bills."

"Wait…You get paid to go to bars?" Hermione felt a little silly for having to ask that question but she felt like she was missing something here.

Cal smiled and took his hand from his pocket, showing her the bright blue pic with bronze iridescent streaks running through it. "I play gigs. It's not much, but like I said, it's enough and I love it."

"Oh, well as long as you enjoy what you're doing then the pay check isn't that important." Hermione said with a grin, "what's the name of your band?"

"The Deathly Hallows." He replied instantly and Hermione's eyes widened in surprise, her body freezing as those three words made a place in her mind and sent her back to her seventh year when she learnt of their existence. Back in her seventh year at Hogwarts, while her, Harry and Ron had been camping alongside the English Countryside searching tirelessly for Horcruxes, she had honestly thought that The Deathly Hallows were nothing more than a child's story but as that whole year dragged on, their existence became much more likely. During The Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, Harry had uncovered the Resurrection Stone inside the Golden Snitch that he had caught during his first Quidditch match and he owned the Cloak of true invisibility, but they had never managed to find the true owner of The Elder Wand – it was true that it was in Harry's possession, but he couldn't harness the true power that the wand could provide.

"Err…Hermione, are you okay?"

Hermione snapped back to reality with her cheeks flushed a light pink – her body freezing up was an involuntary reflex that she couldn't help, but she still felt heat creep up into her face as she looked at his raised eyebrow and confusing glint. "Yeah, yeah its fine, it's just…The Deathly Hallows…It rings a bell, is all."

Cal nodded in understanding and proceeded to tell Hermione the old Children's Tale that had plagued Hermione for the longest time as she tried to figure out the owner of The Elder Wand to no avail. She got as far as Draco and from there on out she has no idea. Really, it should have been Harry as he disarmed him during Malfoy Manor but he must have been disarmed long before that so she has no leads to follow – by the time she'd remembered that Harry had seen Draco disarm Dumbledore and not Snape, Draco was already dead, killed during the Battle of Hogsmeade in March 1999.

By the time Cal had ended the tale, they had reached the coffee shop, which Hermione had to admit was becoming one of her favourite places. As they entered, Hermione scanned the tables out of instinct, cataloguing every person who was in there and their potential threat.

Her eyes landed on a man who was sat by himself in the back of the shop and it made her pause – there was something about his narrow, brown, watery eyes that pushed to the forefront of her mind and she struggled to place him in her mind.

Before she could make the connection, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and pull her into the warmth of a body and she could tell from the spicy scent that washed over her exactly who this was.

"Sirius!" She blinked up at him in shock, watching as he quirked his eyebrows down at her in amusement, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm getting a cup of coffee, when did that become a crime? What up, Cal?" He shook Cal's hand and tilted his head slightly to the side as he appraised the man before him. Hermione knew that Sirius had met Cal before, had even played Quidditch with him and Hermione could see the two of them becoming quite good friends as they were so similar – but right now, Sirius was looking at Cal like he wanted him to implode.

Cal didn't seem to notice though and he shook Sirius' hand and smiled like he was meeting with someone that he hadn't seen in about five years. "Sirius! It's good to see you! What's been up? How's work?" He asked just as they were the next in the queue and ready to order. Hermione ordered a peppermint tea, suddenly craving the instant pick me up that the peppermint provided as both Sirius and Cal ordered a black coffee.

Cal and Sirius talked amongst themselves for a few moments while the drinks were being prepared. Hermione was still pressed tightly against Sirius' side and she wondered briefly if Cal was going to mention it or if he really did think that this was just a simple coffee date to get to know his downstairs neighbour better.

That thought made Hermione bristle slightly and she didn't know why – it would be so simple if they were on the same page, but the woman in her wanted to be appreciated by a man, give her the knowledge that she was attractive something which she really didn't believe.

Still, she wasn't annoyed enough to actually do anything about it and she grabbed her coffee cup once it was placed on the counter and made her way to a free table near the window, thankful that Sirius' arm fell away from her.

She was surprised then to find Sirius dropping into the seat beside her and she noticed that even Cal raised an eyebrow at his behaviour. "So, I'm guessing that you're staying?"

"Yep." Sirius said simply and Hermione looked up at Cal as Sirius took a big gulp of his coffee and she shrugged helplessly. Cal just nodded once and slid into the seat opposite her, letting his hand slide up and over her hand that she had placed palm down on the table in the middle. A part of her wanted to move her hand away so that he didn't get the wrong idea that this was a date (God, she was all over the place with her thought process today) but Natalia's words echoed in her mind, wheeling chaotically on repeat - _"Besides, it'll be good to get back at Sirius."_

She couldn't help but remember how she felt when she saw Sirius with the blonde girl in the TriWand, the betrayed feeling, the feeling that she wasn't enough, that he was bored of her and that she didn't mean anything to him. _I've never been unfaithful…_

Had he been unfaithful? They hadn't technically been together but the intent was there…Had Hermione missed her chance?

Well, no, if the fact that Sirius was glaring daggers at Cal was any indication and she took his jealousy as a good sign. A very good sign.

She casually flipped her hand over and let her fingers rub the underside of Cal's wrist just so, something that Ron had adored. The thought of Ron made her pause because of the sudden ache in her chest, but she pushed it back down, focusing on the here and now and that annoyed glint shining in Sirius' eyes.

After about twenty minutes of Sirius interrupting Hermione and Cal's conversation, she was honestly starting to get annoyed.

"Excuse us, Cal." Hermione said, standing from her seat and wrapping her hand around Sirius' bicep, dragging him up to stand beside her.

Cal grinned at her over the rim of the coffee mug and raised an eyebrow in a display of obvious amusement. He told her to take all the time that she needed and she smiled thankfully at him.

She forcibly pulled Sirius towards the back of the little coffee shop, shoving him into the narrow, dark alley that ran behind it, ignoring his mumbles of 'Ow, pain!'

"What the Hell is that?" Hermione asked angrily. Yes, she wanted jealously and she got it in spades, but she didn't want him to completely ruin her day. "Why are you even here?"

"I've told you," Sirius said, rubbing his arm, "I'm having coffee with a couple of friends."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Sirius' words and crossed her arms over her chest. "Seriously? That's weak. I thought Auror's were supposed to be good at lying. Hey, here's a lie for you!" She dropped her voice a few octaves in an imitation of a man and her brows furrowed. "I've never been unfaithful!"

The words were coming from her mouth without her even thinking about it and she was reminded violently of the argument that she and Ron had had in their fourth year the night of the Yule Ball where they had just screamed at each other in the common room – they had said a lot more hurtful things to each other before Harry had stumbled through the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was obviously a lot more hung up about the blonde skanky woman that she had wanted to admit.

"Hermione –"

"No, save it! I know that we weren't officially going out, but come on Sirius, at the TriWand! That place is a second home to me, no matter how short a time I spent there, and you took your flavour of the day _there_!"

Hermione was breathing heavily by the time that she'd finished her outburst and she wondered vaguely if it was the fact Sirius was with another woman or if it was because he had chosen a place that meant something special to her. Still, it was irrelevant now as she narrowed her eyes at Sirius who was staring at her calmly, his arms crossed over his chest and she found that she was a lot more irritated by this.

Ron would have just screamed back at her, Harry would have rolled his eyes or clicked his tongue and most likely ignored her, but it had been a reaction – Sirius was just looking at her as if she had just announced that she and Remus were getting eloped and having furry, ginger babies named Kibbles who she'd dress up in purple dresses and Hermione was damn _annoyed_!

"Are you done?"

"Am – Are you – Seriously? – What is –" Hermione spluttered in her anger, her brain seemed to be short circuiting and she was losing the ability to function sentences together. She felt the muscle underneath her right eye twitch rapidly, something that it hadn't done since Ron had vanished that night on his wild quest to avenge his family and Hermione had no idea if he was even alive.

"Woah…I've made Hermione Jean speechless. That's gotta be a World record."

Before Hermione could even attempt to string together a scathing response to his poor attempt at humour, the alleyway was lit up briefly by a bright green light that always had the ability to instil fear into Hermione's heart and she reached for her wand instinctively, but her body was pushed into a tiny alcove and Sirius' own warm, lean body was pushed up against her, one of his hands landing on top of hers which held the handle of her wand and the other curving around the back of her head, protecting it from the cold, hard stone.

"Sirius, let me go!" She whispered harshly, struggling against Sirius' hold – she may have still been furious with him, but she knew enough about battle to not draw the opponents attention, and that meant whispering. She was still going to do it in an angry tone though.

"Shhh…" He whispered near her ear, bending his body closer to her and she was overwhelmed by the spicy scent of his that enveloped her, surrounded her very essence and made her feel so safe and protected that was tempted to just let Sirius be the man and take care of her, but an image slid into her mind and her skin prickled cold with fear.

"Sirius, no!" She pressed against his chest much more incessantly, needing desperately to _go back inside_, "Cal's still in there!"

Sirius huffed and banded an arm around her waist, practically pulling her feet from the floor and hefting her closer to him, "Cal can take care of himself."

"Yeah, so can I! Sirius, please, we can't –" She didn't know where the desperate need to make sure Cal was okay came from, but she didn't have time to analyse it as the door to the coffee shop blasted off its hinges and nearly slammed into them. Sirius, acting upon instinct, rolled their bodies away from it and Hermione caught sight of the Death Eater that was now stood in the open doorway.

He was haggard, worn, old. He had a high forehead, bushy light brown eyebrows that sat above the brightest blue eyes that Hermione had even seen and his wispy brown hair was pulled into a loose ponytail at the back of his neck which was streaked with alarming shades of silver. His fingers, which were wrapped around the hilt of his wand were thin and spidery, decorated with wrinkles and scars that had been caused from many fights and battles and Hermione recognised him instantly.

Dan Tussal. This coward of man had haunted her for the past few years and she felt her spine stiffen.

On the 4th November 1998, Dan Tussal and Bellatrix LeStrange had tortured Ron into a state of insanity so deep that Hermione had been forced to put him into a comatose state to protect him and others. The act had nearly killed her and right now was her opportunity to stop it.

She felt fury so intense bubble deep within her, wheeling chaotically through her body that she literally saw red as her world zeroed in on the man who would ruin her whole world. She didn't even give a second thought as she forced her way out of Sirius' hold and arched her arm, her wand curving through the air with the killing curse on the tip of her tongue ready to spring forth and erupt from the end of her wand in a jet of green light which would hit Dan Tussal with a force so strong that it would end his life and Hermione felt her lips curl up in a smile at the thought.

"A-!"

A body slammed roughly into Tussal's and sent him crashing to the floor, his wand falling from his hand and rolling towards Hermione almost in slow motion as her brown eyes fixed upon it – the wand that would send the curse flying into Ron's body and stealing his mind and heart away from him.

She was disappointed that she hadn't ended his life. That thought alone was enough to snap her out of her revive and send her crashing to her knees as tears ran down her cheeks. She was vaguely aware of Sirius crouching behind her and laying his hand gently on her shoulder and of James who was roughly slamming Tussal into the wall so hard that his tooth cracked audibly and Hermione didn't even bother to question where he'd even come from.

She just wanted to go home, to Ron and curl up in his warmth that had been absent from her life for over a year.

00000

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes scanned the scene before him – Hermione was sat on the pavement, a red blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a coffee mug in her hands as she paid no attention to the reporters who were taking photos rapidly and firing questions at passing Auror's, trying desperately to be the first to get the juicy scoop of the attack down Diagon Alley that ended the lives of three people who didn't deserve to die.

Hermione sat with her head down, her thick, curly brown hair falling foreword to curtain her face off from the rest of the world and to let the tears fall silently down her cheeks, which they hadn't stopped doing since she'd caught sight of Tussal.

Sirius swore that if he'd done _anything_ to Hermione in the past, Azkaban would be the least of his worries.

"Alright, you best get Hermione home. Cal's sticking around to help with maintenance and to file a witness report, so I'll see you in the office in about an hour?" James said, letting his Auror persona take over which Sirius was always impressed by. Sirius was thankful that after the signal had been sent to the nearest Auror's, it had been James that was in the closest vicinity. It sucked that he'd had to leave Lily sitting alone at the nearest bar, worrying over her husband and her husband's much better looking best friend, but the relief that Sirius had felt at seeing James tackle that Death Eater made him want to act upon those gay rumours.

Only for a second, but still, the love was there.

He clapped a hand to James' shoulder and moved past him to drop his body beside Hermione, giving Cal the thumbs up when he looked over in worry. Hermione was under his watch now.

"Hermione? Are you ready to go home?" He said gently, carefully taking the coffee mug from her and placing it on the road by his feet. "We can get out of here."

"I wanted to kill him." Hermione's quiet admission made Sirius raise his eyebrows and he moved closer to her, letting his body heat reach out to her, hoping that his presence helped her in some way.

"What do you mean?"

"Sirius…I've survived in this World, this _War_, for so long because I've been trained to see the monster in people, see the hate and spite in their hearts." She said quietly, huddling even further into the safety and comfort of the thin threadbare blanket, bunching the material in her tiny fists. "I saw it in _everyone_, scared that anyone in our ranks could be a traitor, a deflector. I was constantly on my guard waiting for the call that our location had been leaked because someone, one of our _own_, had been the one to admit it under their own power."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sirius asked softly, wondering why she was talking like a soldier, but deciding to leave that be for now as she shivered and sniffed at the same time, causing a part of his heart to ache in his chest and he couldn't not hold her. His arm slid over her shoulders and pulled her gently into his body, but she barely acknowledged him, her eyes focused on a spot on the floor by his feet.

"I just…I never thought –" She sobbed once, her face crumpling slightly and Sirius couldn't help but think that she still looked beautiful. "-Never thought that when I looked at the mirror, I'd see the monster in _me_."

_**A/N**__: And here's the next chapter – Exams finished today, so I got this up as quick as I could – I now have freedom for a few months with no revision. Thank God!_

_Oh, also, I have to apologise for putting Weight of the World instead of Playing God in Chapter 9 - It's a story that I wrote and completed a while back with the same characters, so I just put that instead - Sorry! Thanks for pointing it out to me WaterFlower20! :D_

_By the way, if you want a visual image of what Cal looks like (who does play a very important part for this story), Google Johnny Depp in the movie Chocolat. Seriously, you'll thank me for it. _

_Kelly _

_xxx_


	12. The Death of Draco Malfoy

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own any Harry Potter characters or locations._

**Playing God**

**Chapter Twelve**

"_Well this car is automatic, it's systematic, it's hydromatic! Why it's greased lightnin'!"_

"Man, I love this film." Natalia said from beside Hermione, throwing a piece of popcorn into the air, tilting her head back and expertly catching the small treat in her mouth. "Kenickie, get in my bed."

"Kenickie? Really?" Hermione asked in disbelief, her eyebrows quirked in surprise.

"Damn right, Kenickie! Don't tell me that you're a Danny girl."

It had been a week since the attack down Diagon Alley and Hermione was still shaken up about it – so much so that she threw herself into her work to distract herself from the low, burning feeling in the pit of her stomach that threatened to consume her. She avoided the people that she could on a regular basis, hardly saying two words to Remus and Ali during her work hours and not stopping in to see Natalia at all. Unfortunately, Hermione didn't know how much it would frustrate her neighbour and, at 7:00pm today, Natalia had quite literally barged her way into Hermione's apartment, demanding that she turn on the TV as she threw a bag of popcorn in her face, because Grease was playing and it was her favourite movie.

At first, Hermione was annoyed by Natalia's entrance, but more than halfway through the movie and she had to admit that she was grateful for the small distraction that this offered and she briefly wondered if she'd go to bed nightmare free tonight.

Hermione shrugged nonchalantly and chewed thoughtfully on her popcorn before she answered Natalia's remark. "Well, he is the main character. And he cares."

"Oh please, he's a tool! He completely changes himself for some whiny blonde that he's known for what, five minutes? It just isn't realistic. Now Kenickie, that's a guy who's comfortable with who he is and he isn't ashamed of it." Natalia nodded as she finished her explanation, "of course, he is completely hot. That is definitely not lost on me."

"I'm still surprised you know what a film is." Hermione chuckled, tucking her feet underneath her as she turned to look at her friend.

"I'm just full of surprises me. You don't know what I got till I show ya!" Natalia grinned and then winked, throwing a few more pieces of popcorn in her mouth and crunching loudly, examining her fingernails closely, the iridescent pink reflecting in Hermione's electrical lighting.

Hermione nodded and shimmed down the back of the couch lightly, so that she was eye level with Natalia, who was slouching back, her bare feet propped up on the coffee table in front of her. "Yeah…Kinda like a Hufflepuff."

"I hate you."

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at Natalia's dead pan response and she was happy to realise that it had been the first time that she'd out-right laughed since the attack. "Come on, Nat, you must have known that I'd find out. I don't get why you kept it a secret in the first place – there's nothing wrong with being a Hufflepuff."

"No, you're right. There isn't. Hufflepuff is a house of loyalty and union, a house that accepts anyone and everyone without caring if they're brave, or smart or a pure-blood. Helga Hufflepuff just wanted everyone to learn magic and she didn't care _where_ you came from or _who_ you came from."

"Exactly. So why don't you tell people that instead of making everyone think that you're a Slytherin?"

"Because it's irrelevant."

Hermione blinked in confusion at Natalia's words and furrowed her brows. It was times like this that confused the hell out of Hermione, and she didn't like being confused. "How -?"

"Slytherin, Hufflepuff, who cares? I'm the exact same person that I am without stamping a house label on me." At seeing Hermione's face still screwed up in confusion, Natalia sighed and shook her head, her long black curls sliding over her shoulder. "I don't tell people that I'm a Slytherin," Natalia started to explain, "they just assume it because I'm a grade A-Bitch. Fact." Natalia held her hand up to Hermione when she sensed that Hermione would butt in. It was true that Natalia _was_ a bitch, but she was also kind and caring and a great friend. "But I don't tell people I'm a Hufflepuff either. Think about it, it's the last house you'd expect of me, right?"

Hermione was ashamed to say that she had been extremely shocked when that was the house name that had tumbled from Remus' lips that day in Florish and Blotts when they were having this particular conversation…It was hard for Hermione to believe that that had been over a week ago. N

Seeing the faint blush cross Hermione's cheekbones and her sheepish glance, Natalia felt a smirk settle across her lips. "See? I don't act like a Hufflepuff, so why tell people that I'm a Hufflepuff and bring the reputation of that whole house down?"

Hermione, who had been sipping some green tea at this point, very nearly spat it out over her friend at this response. "What?" She gasped in surprise, blinking rapidly. "You think that you'd bring Hufflepuff down? How…Why would –"

Natalia shook her head slowly. "Hufflepuff's equal nice people and Natalia equals bitch. Look, I don't mind because my allegiance will always be to Hufflepuff, but what difference does it make to who I am whether I was in Hufflepuff or Slytherin? Absolutely none. Now that's about as chick-flicky as I can get…Besides, we're missing my _favourite movie of all time." _

The emphasis on those final words weren't lost on Hermione and she decided to let it go, accepting Natalia's answer, even though she didn't like it. Natalia was a Hufflepuff through and through, bitch or not and it saddened Hermione that Natalia didn't believe herself to be worthy of that house…But Hermione supposed that's what made Natalia who she was. And Hermione was proud to have her as a friend.

00000

There was no mistaking the long silvery hair, the sneer fixed permanently in place, the snake headed cane that was practically glued to his right hand at all hours of the day and the majestic way that he carried himself; as if the whole world was his oyster and he could do whatever the Hell he wanted to do.

He was walking down the streets of Hogsmeade towards Hermione and she very nearly exclaimed in surprise at seeing him. The last time that she had laid eyes on Lucius Malfoy was during the Battle of Hogsmeade, a few streets away from here closer to HoneyDukes (of course by 1999 it had been abandoned and was used as a safe house to people who had rejected from the Death Eaters, but their true intentions were not made clear to the Order) in which he had aimed the killing curse directly at his sons chest.

Hermione felt the swell of anger and pure agony swell up in her chest as she remembered the way that Lucius, snivelling in the pouring rain, had raised his wand to his only child after it had been revealed to the Death Eaters that Draco had rejected. After his disappearance from the Death Eaters in July in 1998, many of them had assumed that he had been killed during a mission to raid a Muggle orphanage which Draco was supposed to be leading – nobody had assumed that he'd rejected to the Order, intent on changing the evil things that he'd done and hoping for forgiveness and for redemption, something that Hermione had given him in leaps and bounds.

She and Draco had gotten close towards the end of November in 1998 – Harry had been putting Hermione on as many missions as possible in an effort to rid her mind from the state that her lover was residing in as he lay unconscious in a bed, secluded in Shell Cottage. He had decided to send Draco with her after he had passed every test thrown at him, and his intentions were true as far as the Order was concerned and Dumbledore's testimony that he didn't believe Draco would have truly killed him in the astronomy tower that day in 1997 was unwavering for some people, particularly Harry.

Hermione on the other hand, she still had some doubts about him and Harry thought it would be perfect. They were supposed to scope out a factory down in Doncaster which was supposed to be being used by the Death Eaters as a base of operations. Their mission was simple; find the place, find out who was in there (if anybody) and then get the Hell out.

Of course, plans didn't always go exactly the way that they're supposed to do and Hermione and Draco had fallen into a trap – Hermione was literally three seconds away from another _Crucio_ before Draco, surprisingly, saved her and earned himself a spot as her right hand man, something that he took in his stride. Every mission that she went on, whether it was as small as interrogating a caught fugitive or as big as trying to find out the sixth Horcrux, Draco was there beside her – a constant, something that she had lost when Ron lost his mind and Harry had been practically locked in his room to keep him safe.

The Battle of Hogsmeade was no different.

"_Okay, so you all know your positions. They're going to come down hard and they're going to come down fast." _

"_Geez, could you have made that any more sexual?" Seamus Finnigan sniggered from where he was crouched behind the joke shop that Hermione just couldn't quite remember the name of. A small wave of quiet laughs swelled up from the numbers that had been called foreword to fight this fight. Blaise Zabini, another rejecter, had gained some leads that the Death Eaters were going to attack Hogwarts, and Harry had planned for them to counter attack in Hogsmeade, protecting the kids that still attended Hogwarts, which weren't that many. "We're fighting so that they don't have to, Hermione. We have to keep them safe. Cut them off at the knees every chance that you get and, for Merlin's sake, please be safe." Harry had uttered those words a few hours before she and Draco had apparated to this meeting point and Hermione herself couldn't help but smile as Severus scowled at the Irish boy. If they could still laugh and smile, then they were going to be okay. _

_Oh, how wrong she was. _

"_You ready for this Granger?" Draco has asked behind her from where he was sat on the floor, uncaring that his jeans were getting stained in mud as the rain came down hard, plastering his white blonde hair to his forehead. He shoved it off in impatience, his grey eyes narrowing into slits as he scanned the area around them. There was no-one. _

_Hogsmeade had been abandoned long ago. At first, the Death Eaters were intent upon patrolling this area, but had given up and relocated when they released that it wasn't any use to anybody if nobody was here. _

_She grinned at Draco and bumped her fist with his as she extracted her wand from her thigh holster. "Bring it." She said teasingly, knowing that they would win. Given the amount of Battles and wars that Hermione had taken part in, she was surprised that she wasn't more scared at this prospect of staring down Death Eaters hell bent on destroying Hogwarts, but she wasn't worried. If she was going to die, then she was going to die. _

_She knew that she would go down fighting and so did Draco. _

"_Okay, but don't be stupid Granger." He warned, lowering his head so that his eyes were level with hers, catching her in some sort of tractor beam, "if you're in danger, you'd better get the hell of out dodge." _

_Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes, used to this lecture from Draco by now, but his hands latched onto the sides of her face firmly. "I'm serious. Things get rough, apparate out. I mean it, Granger." _

"_Draco, this is no different from the thousands of other –" Her next words were cut off as an explosion rocked the ground and the building they were sat behind began to tilt on its axis heading straight for the first wave of fighters. _

"_Move!" Draco grabbed her hand and pulled her up and out of the way without a second thought as the building crashed to the ground hard, debris flying every which way. _

_It was on. _

_They had been battling for half an hour before the second wave of fighters were brought onto the Battlefield, being led by Remus Lupin, who slashed a Death Eater before him in half without a second thought. Hermione barely blinked as her face was sprayed with his blood as she was still intently focused on the battle that she was currently engaging in with Yaxley. He'd had a personal vendetta against her since she, Ron and Harry broke into the Ministry a few years back and she was getting really tired of him getting on her case._

_Just as Neville helped her out with a well-placed _Stupefy_ she had seen Lucius and Draco come face to face. Draco was breathing hard, his hand clutching tightly onto his wand and a nasty cut across his right eye that Hermione made a mental note to look at when this was over, while Lucius looked as if he was just joining in this fight, his eyes twitching as he caught sight of his son who he'd thought had been dead for a long time. _

"_Draco. Well, isn't this a surprise?" _

_Hermione didn't hear anymore after that ; the rain was pounding in her ears and just that moment, Dolohov had caught sight of her – someone else who had it out for her since she had shrunk his head in her fifth year. That had to have been painful for his pride, being beaten by a sixteen year old girl. _

_The battle seemed to be heating up instead of winding down and the Death Eaters didn't seem to be giving up – all around her, her friends and comrades were falling; Angelina Johnson was thrown down by Goyle Senior, Cho Chang was being choked by Walden Macnair, Aberforth Dumbledore being stunned by Thicknesse and Alicia Spinnet having her throat being ripped out by Fenrir Greyback … But her eyes were glued on one person and one person only. _

_Draco Malfoy. _

_She knew what was going to happen a moment before it did – Lucius knocked Draco's wand away from him and it rolled across the cobbled street away from him. His body followed its descent to the floor as Lucius used a severing charm, causing a wide gash to cut across his chest._

"_No!" Hermione screamed out as Draco's knees hit the floor, his head hanging down as the strength left his body. Hermione pushed people out of her way, ducking under different, brightly coloured curses and circling around people, her arm outstretched as she reached for him desperately, Lucius's arm wand thrown back, ready to arch through the air as he practically screamed out the words to the killing curse. _

_Her body collided with Draco's moments before the spell hit his chest and they hit the ground hard – the curse sailed over out bodied and slammed into the wall of a building, the windows shaking in their panes before exploding into a million pieces, showering the two of them with sharp edges of glass. _

"_Well, what do we have here? The Mudblood, Draco, really?" Lucius sneered, his body showing that he was in command, in control, but his nervous twitches and shifty eyes told Hermione that he was afraid. _

_He was a coward. _

"_Her…M'ne…" Draco gasped, blood bubbling up in the gash in his chest and she shushed him gently, clambering to my feet, not paying any attention as the glass crunched beneath my weight. _

"_What is the matter with you? He's your son." Hermione said, her chest heaving as she struggled to take in air, her collision with the floor having knocked the wind out of her. "You don't have to do this, Malfoy, you don't."_

"_No…Mine…" Draco struggled to sit up on the floor and Lucius' eyes snapped to him and I felt fear clench my around my heart like an iron fist. You can't take him, she thought, not another one of my friends…_

_Just as she was about to attempt to delve into the fathering side of him, she heard a snarl and a roar as well as a shrill cry of her name – she spun on her heel just in time to put up a shield charm that Fenrir Greyback's body slammed into painfully and she heard the distinct crunch of bones as his body slumped to the floor, quivering in pain. _

_Before Hermione could sigh in relief, the noises around her vanished, dissolving into the background as lights illuminated the dark, Gray night before her and her senses became attuned to one thing and one thing only – "Sectumsempra!" _

_Hermione felt warmth drench her side and her hand jerkily pressed into it, surprised to find that it was painful. She jerkily yanked on the material of her red sweater and lifted it to see a wide gash in her side that made her loose her bearings and she collapsed to her knees. Before she could hit the floor though, a body was besides her propping her up, keeping her from meeting the floor face first. _

"_Hermione? No, no, no, no…You bastard! She has nothing to do with this!" A hand cradled the side of her face and she found that she was listening to a frantic paced heartbeat. She felt as if someone had pressed the slow motion button on a remote control and had muted her life as her eyes gazed at the hectic action around her. _

"_Oh dear boy…She has _everything_ to do with this. Rejecting us is one thing…But rejecting us for _that_…That is another thing entirely." The last thing that Hermione remembered before her vision went black were arms tightening almost painfully around her and a repeated curse that met the end of Draco Malfoy. _

She woke up a week later with a cry on her lips and an ache in her heart in the bed beside Ron, who was slumbering peacefully, like he had been for four months prior.

After that battle, it had taken her awhile before she could go back to missions, preferring instead to hole up in the library, researching the Horcruxes, or pouring over tombs and old children's story, hoping for a hint that would tell her who the owner of the Elder Wand was. She had stamped down the pain that she felt at Draco's death and had eventually managed to not think about it at all and the presence of Lucius before caused it all to slam back into her painfully and she automatically held a hand to her chest, as if it would somehow mend the broken pieces of her heart that had splintered off with each death she witnessed, and each one that she caused.

As Lucius passed her, the corner of his lips pulled up into a sneer and she had to fight the impulse to just _tear him down_ that was so strong, her hand was shaking as it reached for her wand. She was mentally planning what spell she was going to use as a red mist descended over her vision and the need to cause him pain like he had her and Draco was consuming, burning in her, swirling around and around begging to be heard when –

"Earth to Hermione! Are you even listening to me?" Hermione's world suddenly expanded and she felt like she could breathe again. She turned her head slowly to the side to see Natalia looking at her, her eyebrows raised in question as she crossed her arms and leaned back against a store window. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Hermione automatically went on the defence as she looked over her shoulder in time to see Malfoy Seniors long, navy blue robes whip around a corner and out of sight.

Merlin, she could kill him. She could. Draco was born in June 1980, which meant that Narcissa was already pregnant with him – there was no need to keep Lucius alive, no need at all and if she could just –

"Hermione, seriously, I'm starting to feel like I'm talking to myself here. What's up?"

"Natalia, now isn't a good –"

"Hey, you're the one who suggested this little shopping trip last night, remember? We were on the couch, cuddled up under the fluffy red blanket as the firelight flickered romantically in the background with the music swelling on the screen as – Wait, where are you going?"

Hermione had tuned Natalia out halfway through and she was now pushing her way past the steady stream of shoppers heading in her direction, moving away from her friend and intently towards Lucius, all of the anger and hate that she could feel for him driving her foreword, keeping her head straight as she slammed her body around the corner…to find that he wasn't there.

She didn't know whether to be relieved that he wasn't there, or terrified that she was disappointed by it.

00000

"I'm worried about Hermione," Sirius glanced up as Remus lifted up the edge of his dark purple curtains, staring out into the courtyard, "she's barely said two words to me since the attack."

Sirius pushed his chair away from the table and stood up, making his way to stand beside Remus. Out of the window, he saw Hermione and Natalia enter through the main gates into the courtyard. "She looks rough," he commented, crossing his arms over his chest, hoping that his concern didn't leak out into his tone. Judging by Remus's amused smirk, he could hear it.

"Sirius, as your best friend, I'm –"

"James is my best friend." Sirius fired back, but his tone was light and teasing.

"I know, man, you don't want to hurt his feelings," Remus gave Sirius an exaggerated wink as outside, the two girls stopped in front of Hermione's door, "but as your best friend –"

"Dude, James is my best friend." Sirius repeated, watching like a hawk as Hermione and Natalia chatted, Natalia's hand clasped around Hermione's shoulders.

Hermione had been avoiding him to, and he hadn't spoken to her since the attack either – it seemed that Natalia was the only one who Hermione would talk to and he tried to stomp down the swell of jealousy that bubbled up like a cauldron in his stomach. Hadn't he proved to her that he was in this with her? When he took her home that night and said goodbye to he, he promised her that she was safe, that she was good. Those words that she'd said to him as they sat on the pavement still haunted him, echoing around his mind.

How could she think that she was a monster, when all who she is was undeniably _good_.

"No, according to a very nice, rugged old man who I was serving yesterday while you and James were browsing the crime books, giggling like children over the word fornicate, James is your boyfriend." Remus sniggered from beside him, letting the curtain drop back into place once Natalia had hugged Hermione and had moved away heading to her own apartment. "Still, I think I should warn you to not tell Hermione that she looks rough to her face."

"No, I can't see that going over well." Sirius laughed lightly as he imagined Hermione, in all her fury, turning him into a ferret or something equally rodent like.

Sirius moved past Remus and went back to the dining room table to finish his Butter beer when the front door to Remus' apartment practically slammed open and Natalia breezed in.

"Natalia! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Sirius asked, once again rising from his seat as he spread his arms out in welcome, his right hand still wrapped around the bottle, "welcome to my friend's humble home." He announced this as if Natalia had never been in this flat before and she just rolled ehr dark brown eyes at him, deciding to completly ignore his presence.

"I'm worried about Hermione."

"Well, that's a sentiment that's been going around a lot today." Sirius said as he collapsed back into his seat on the couch, not even sparing Natalia another glance as he drank down about a quarter of his drink, hoping for something with a little more kick, but he had work in the morning and the last time he'd shown up to work with hung-over, Kingsley had reamed him out for hours and then James, thinking it would be funny, hid one of those monkeys that banged the cymbals together somewhere in the office.

Still, Hermione wouldn't leave his mind and he was feeling the sting of her absence, almost like rejection, pressing hard up into his ribs. It made him uncomfortable and he really didn't appreciate it.

There must be something that he could do?

"No, she went a bit weird today when we were shopping in Hogsmeade," Natalia informed them, dropping onto the couch beside Sirius without being invited by Remus and she leaned her head over the back of the couch, her long thick hair hanging over like a black veil. "She flipped when she caught sight of Lucius Malfoy."

"Do you think…I don't know, that Hermione's maybe lying to us?"

"Of course she's lying to us, Remus, and it's driving me crazy!" Natalia said angrily, her hand curling into a fist as she breathed harshly through her nose, "How are we supposed to be her friends when she isn't being honest with us?"

Sirius was honestly taken aback by Natalia's outrage and he wondered why she cared so much about a woman who she'd known for about a fortnight. It just didn't make sense to him, "woah, Natalia, getting a little crush are we?" he teased as he lifted his feet up and put them on the table before him, his heels banging against the wood.

Natalia's sharp inhale was all he needed to know. "Shut up, Black."

"Wait…Seriously?"

"Whatever. Not like it matters, right?" Natalia smiled sadly and shook her head, her hair swaying with the motion. "Besides, you'd throw me under a bus to get into her pants. This is screwed up and insane, but it isn't like I love her or anything, it's just a little crush."

Sirius felt an awkwardness press against him as his mind instantly reverted back to the night that he and Natalia had spent together over a year ago and wondering if she'd been vying for girls then and playing a show, or if she'd only just recently discovered it about herself.

"I'm about 70 – 30, Black." She answered his unasked question and Sirius wondered if she could read his mind, "Just go talk to her, yeah? She really needs it right now."

Sirius stood at once, not even questioning Natalia's order and putting his drink down on the table with a clunk before turning towards her, "are you sure? I mean, she spends time with you and we don't know –"

"She'd choose you." Natalia said with a sad expression on her beautiful face.

"Yeah?"

"Every time. You and your stupid penis."

00000

Hermione looked at her reflection in the mirror, her hands gripping the side of the porcelain sink in front of her as her coffee coloured eyes scoured every inch of her face, trying desperately to see the monster inside her.

No trace. There was no devious glint in her eye, no smirk on her lips, no quirked eyebrow – she was just Hermione and she looked absolutely no different.

Merlin, this was messed up. Her eyelids slid closed as more tears escaped her eyes, tracing the path down her face and dripped down her neck, landing on the sink and seemingly exploding when they hit the cold, hard surface. She was so tired and she felt so lost that a part of her was just desperate to get home, to curl up in Harry's arms and cry herself to sleep. She missed the feeling of solid friendship, of someone who she could tell anyone to. Harry, Ron, Draco…

And now she'd lost them all.

It seemed that she'd be crying herself to sleep alone tonight, she thought as she left the bathroom, flicking the light off and holding onto the sides of her Gryffindor red dressing gown, pulling it closer to her, wrapping it more securely around her body.

She collapsed onto her bed, knowing that her tears were staining her pillows with little puddles, but she felt so defeated that she didn't even move away, instead burrowing even further into the warmth and comfort of her bed.

When someone knocked on the door, she nearly let out a sob. She wasn't in the mood to see anyone or talk to anyone or even look at anyone, she was so shaken up from seeing Lucius and having the memory of Draco's death slam into her painfully, something that she'd buried inside her for a long time.

However, the person on the other side didn't share her thought process and they just kept knocking and knocking, never ending, the noise a constant, driving her insane until she sat up in frustration and reaching for her wand.

Merlin, what was _happening_ to her?

"Hermione? Hermione, are you there?" It was Sirius and she didn't know whether to be relieved or annoyed. "I know you're in there, babe, so let me in."

_Babe_…Hermione rolled her eyes at the pet name that he'd probably used on countless woman and used her hands to brush the fresh tears off of her cheeks which hadn't stopped falling since she'd left Natalia in the courtyard.

She stood on shaky legs, not caring if she looked like crap and stumbled to the door in the dark.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked as she opened the door, not at all surprised to see Sirius looking as handsome as ever in a black, button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up revealing his forearms and dark blue jeans which hugged his thighs. On his left wrist he wore a beaded bracelet and on his right there was a silver watch.

"My, my, my, aren't we chipper?" Sirius brushed past her and Hermione pushed back the urge to yell and stomp her feet like a toddler instead; she chose to close the door with a resounding slam. "Hermione, what's gotten into you?" Sirius asked, and while a part of Hermione was annoyed by the question, the other half was surprised by it.

She hadn't spoken to Sirius in over a week, ashamed that he'd seen her when the monster inside of her chose to show itself and even more embarrassed that she'd told him.

She hadn't meant to, she thought as she leant against the wall, watching Sirius as he sat down on her sofa without her say-so, extending his arm over the back of it, placing his feet on her coffee table, making himself feel at home, putting her instantly at ease. That's what Sirius did, Hermione realised, and he had this amazing ability to comfort and sooth without actually saying a word, without lifting a finger. Just his presence was enough for her, and she really, _really_ needed the comfort right now.

Her body acted on auto-pilot as she moved to kneel beside him on the couch, so close that her knees brushed against his thighs. He raised his eyebrows at her in question as she brought her hands up to cup the side of his face, the tips of her fingers sliding into his smooth black hair.

"Hermione, what -?" He reached up to cover her hand, but she shushed him.

Before she could think about it, she pressed her lips to his almost violently, needing to relieve some of this tension that was permanently inside her – she almost felt like a windup toy, and the monster inside of her just kept spinning and spinning the key until she was about to explode and she hoped, _prayed_, that _this_ with Sirius would stop it from happening…or cause it to explode in a good kind of way.

He responded instantly, returning the pressure that she was using and winding his arms around her waist, pulling her up and onto his lap, her knees straddling his thighs. She moaned in the back of her throat and let her hands skim over his chest, the feel of the black silk of his shirt cool to her touch and she felt a fire ignite in her that craved more, something that she hadn't felt since she'd been with Ron well over a year ago.

The thought of Ron caused more tears to spill down her cheeks and drip onto Sirius' face, whose eyes blinked open at the wet splashes he felt against his cheeks and he was brought back down to Earth. "Hermione…" He said as he moved his head back, his hands sliding up her body to cup her jaw, stopping her own movements to follow his, "Hermione, what are we doing?"

"Well, if you don't know then you're not as good at this as I thought…" Hermione said, but her tears and devastated expression stopped him from responding with a snarky comment.

"Hermione, I won't be that guy," he said gently, moving Hermione to sit beside him again and Hermione felt a painful sting of rejection that she was used to after seeing Ron and Lavender all over each other in sixth year. "Not the guy that you sleep with and never want to see again because you're suffering."

"I bet that you've been that guy before…" She said, using the sleeve of her dressing gown to wipe away some more tears and Sirius felt his own heart ache at the sight of her.

He moved closer to her, so that their legs were pressed tight to each other and he slid his arm around her thigh, urging her body to lean into his, resting her head gently over his fast-paced heart. "I have, but I won't be that guy for you. You're hurting and you're vulnerable and I refuse to take advantage of you."

She huddled closer at his words and he knew that he had somehow managed to soothe her and he breathed out sharply through his nose, pulling her just that bit closer, his other hand cupping the back of her head, entangling in her crazy curls.

A few minutes later, when it seemed that she was about to go to sleep, he leaned his lips closer to her ear and said, "so, you've been thinking about how good I would be in bed? Well, honey, let me tell you – I would rock your World."

The small, tired laugh that he got in reply made his entire day.

**A/N:**_ First of all, I have no idea if they played Grease on Television in 1980 – I don't see why they wouldn't, but if, for some strange reason they didn't, then they managed to watch it through the use of magic :D_

_Okay, now the whole Draco story-line…I'm soory, but I adore Dramione - There's just something about them that I love and I was going to have them be in a relationship, but I didn't think that it was the right tone for this story so I made them BFF's - although Draco totally has a crush on her ;)_

_I hope you all liked this chapter! _

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	13. The Thirteen Steps

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own anything Harry Potter related in this story._

**Playing God**

**Chapter Thirteen **

"How'd it go with Hermione last night?" Sirius sighed as he looked across the table at Natalia, not at all surprised that it had taken her roughly 0.3 seconds to ask him about Hermione after taking her seat opposite him.

He raised his eyebrows at her and propped his feet up on the chair between them, lounging effortlessly in his own seat and ignoring Natalia, letting his greys eyes follow the paths of the other customers.

"Hey! My eyes are in this direction!" Sirius failed to turn towards her, determined to keep quiet about what happened between him and Hermione, feeling that it should be kept private; if Hermione had already told her everything or if she wanted to, then that was her call – But Natalia wouldn't hear about Hermione's breakdown from him. "My boobs are also in this direction…" she practically purred and, against his will, his eyes were automatically pulled towards her ample chest which were currently being showcased by the grey T-Shirt that she wearing which announced to the World that she'd been to see the Weird Sisters on their first Tour. "You know that you're gonna have to work on those manly urges if you want a real chance with Hermione."

Even though the words were teasing, Sirius could hear the underlining threat and knew that Natalia would unleash her inner demon if he hurt Hermione in anyway. Was he ready for that?

"You know what, Natalia? I just don't think that I'm prepared to give up my life as a kickass bachelor yet. Maybe in a couple years, but right now? No. I think I'd just royally screw up." Sirius sighed, wondering when the hell his life turned into a drama and pinpointing it as the moment he noticed Hermione Jean.

Natalia had been scrutinising him, her eyes narrowed as she watched him talk and she couldn't help but nod in agreement at his words telling him exactly what she thought of him.

"You're not supposed to agree with me here, Natalia." He sighed as he signalled for Madame Roberta to bring over two drinks of Fire Whiskey, wondering if they had anything stronger. "You're supposed to say _'it's okay, Siri, you'll be a great BF to my BFF'_" he shook his head as he stopped talking, Natalia scowling at the voice he had choosing to mimic her, raising his voice by about five octaves.

"But I do agree with you." Natalia scoffed, folding her arms across her chest, "remember Melanie?"

Sirius tilted his head to the side, looking very much like a puppy who had heard an unfamiliar noise and was trying to place it in his mind, "Melanie?" He asked in confusion, his brain working in overdrive to try and find the face that the name belonged to.

Natalia's mouth dropped in open in what could either be disgust or shock, Sirius wasn't sure which. His shoulders rose in a helpless motion, having no idea what she wanted from him at that moment. "Are you being serious?"

"Baby, I'm always Sirius." He couldn't help but snigger at the use of the old reply that he used to use during Hogwarts all the time. The smack across the face was a different reaction then he was expecting. "What on Merlin's Earth was that for!"

"For being an imbecile." Natalia replied, thanking Madame Rosmerta as she placed their drinks down before them, smiling a motherly smile at Natalia and shooting him a look of pure pity.

"Oh, dear – what has young Mister Black done this time?"

Natalia opened her mouth to reply when the tiny bell above the front entrance peeled a beautiful sonnet that Sirius thought was quite fitting for a Shakespearian play and in entered the object of their discussion.

"Hermione!" Natalia shouted loudly, smirking quickly at Sirius before standing and winding her way through the tables to reach Hermione, gently guiding her towards their table. "I'm glad that you could make it!"

"No problem, Natalia." Hermione smiled gently, lowering herself into one of the spare chairs around the table and Sirius couldn't help but watch her intently, making sure that she was okay.

She definitely seemed a lot better, he noticed, the dark rings underneath her eyes had nearly gone from a good long nights sleep that she had been lacking on the Coffee Shop over a week ago. It seemed that sleep, a good breakfast prepared by himself and a return to her normal life was working wonders for her and, even though it had only been a day, Sirius counted it as a victory.

"Speaking of Melanie –" Natalia started, leaning her arm on the table and shifting her body weight so that she was closer to Hermione, "how are things going with Cal?"

At the mention of the guy that Hermione had been on a date with, Sirius felt his heart turn to ice – it was a strange reaction, one that he was uncomfortable with but not one that was entirely foreign. He knew that he was possessive over her and he was willing to stake his claim on this girl before him if it wasn't for his bizarre fear of commitment that he couldn't seem to let go.

He had tried for her. He remembered their date in his front yard, how he had lit all the candles and did some fancy wand work (not the fun kind) to get them all to float for so long, how she had looked in the flicking orange and yellow hued light and the way her lips had felt pressed to his as the rain fell around them and soaked them to the bone. He had felt an overwhelming feeling of completeness – and _that_ was foreign to him – but then, the next day, he had seen that blonde girl that he'd went to school with (Melanie!) and he couldn't _not_ act on his impulses to be with her.

And it had cost him Hermione.

He should be annoyed with himself, but he can't be. It's who he was and, while he has no desire to settle down right now (he was only twenty, he didn't see the need) he still couldn't stand the thought of Hermione doing so with someone who wasn't him.

"Well…I haven't seen him. You know…Since."

"Why the Hell not?" Natalia asked angrily, her eyebrows furrowing to meet in a 'V' in the middle, "he's hot!"

"Natalia, that isn't everything." Hermione said, shaking her head slowly, "there's more to a guy whether or not he's good looking."

"Like whether or not he's faithful?" Even though she was talking to Hermione, she was looking straight at Sirius and he could feel the anger and annoyance in the words.

Before he could retaliate with the well forgotten fact that he and Hermione weren't officially dating, Hermione had already done that for him, shaking her head at her new friend, silently communicating that she stand down.

What followed next, Sirius had no idea. They seemed to communicate with eye glances and head tilts, almost as if they were having a telepathic conversation that Sirius had to admit he felt a bit like they were stepping on his and James' toes.

He imagined that they were silently conversing about him and, rather than interrupt and demand they just speak outloud to his face, he leant back in his chair and sipped his drink, creating their conversation in his head.

Natalia head tilt = _you know, he really got it right. He ruined me for other men._

Hermione rapid blinking = _Honestly? I can't say I'm surprised…have you seen his muscles?_

Natalia eye roll = _seen them? Baby, I've felt them. They are really something else._

Hermione head shake = _I just don't know what to do…He's so beautiful and so…God-like._

Natalia frantic nodding = _Dam right he is! He is a fine piece of ass that you have hooked, line and sinker! Finish him!_

Hermione sad sigh = _I might just…Do you think I'd mind if I ran my hand up his leg?_

Natalia smile and nod as she leaned back in her seat = _He'd love it._

However, instead of the small leg that he had expected to run up the seam of his jeans, Hermione stood up and said her goodbyes, leaving the two of them sitting there, Sirius staring after her in complete confusion and annoyance.

"What the hell just happened?" he frowned, his eyes following Hermione's path through the pub until she left, the usual sonnet of the bell ringing around the room.

"What do you mean?" Natalia asked, her smirk fixed in place which, quite honestly, made his skin crawl.

"I mean she was just about to run her hand up my leg which would lead to other, inappropriate things, but instead she just…leaves?"

Natalia dropped her smirk and frowned at him, tilting her drink towards him and leaning her weight foreword so that if he so desired he could look down the cut of her top to see some lovely cleavage.

He so desired.

"Where did you get that idea from?" She asked, sipping some more of the burning liquid that, really, should be downed but he and Natalia were good at handling the drink so that they could drink it as fast as they desired.

"That conversation you just had! That telepathic one! You were telling her how awesome and amazing I am and then –" He was cut off by Natalia bursting into laughter, cradling her forehead in one hand as her shoulders moved up and down – if someone were to look across the room at them right now, they could think that Natalia was sobbing, not laughing at him.

"Oh, you're such a dolt." She laughed, "we weren't talking about you, Sirius…We were talking about Cal."

Cal. Instead of his heart freezing, it felt like someone had thrown a bucket of freezing cold water over him. He knew that he had no right, but he couldn't help how he felt, and he felt pissed off. "Well where has she gone?"

Natalia's smirk once again made its way to her face and she raised her eyebrows purposefully at him, telling him without words exactly where Hermione had gone.

To find Cal Heartway.

Suddenly, Sirius had another name added to his most hated people list.

00000

Hermione entered the courtyard outside of her apartment just as the sun had fully set and night had taken it's place, shrouding the place in secrecy – if someone were to walk past who didn't already know that this apartment complex was here, they would just keep going and that's what Hermione loved about it.

She hadn't felt safe in a long time, but here, in this tiny place, she truly did.

The fountain in the middle of their complex was practically singing as the water spilled into it, lights underneath the liquid shining brightly all different colours and Hermione sighed happily as she sat on the lip of the stone edging, letting her fingers trail across the cool water. It was stunning.

She let her eyes travel to the white marble staircase and silently counted each step – Thirteen.

She had to climb them tonight, go to the end apartment and have a conversation with Cal Heartway. She could quite honestly say that she didn't really want to have it, for two reasons.

1 – She was about to tell him that whatever they had, they weren't going to have anymore because she was tired of playing games with Sirius and that was more than a little daunting considering that she didn't know what they had. It was either going to be embarrassing if he only genuinely wanted friendship, or awkward if he had wanted more.

2 – She wasn't good at confrontations like this – sure, give her a wand and a target and she'll blast right through, piss her off and she knows how to retaliate, she's even learning how to have a proper girl talk but this…Talking to a guy about something she wasn't sure was there? Yeah, that was terrifying. After all it had taken her seven years to tell Ron how she had felt and she hadn't even used words then, just kissed him to convey her feelings.

A part of her just wanted to ignore the whole thing and just not deal with it, but she knew that wasn't the best idea, even if it was the easiest to deal with. With another, less happy sigh, Hermione stood fully and walked to the staircase, her heels clacking on the stone floor and sounding like silenced gunshots echoing around the complex. She grasped the bannister in one hand and started the climb up to the top, stopping once to wave at Remus, who had just walked into the complex and was getting his key from his jacket pocket. He waved back absent-mindedly and Hermione couldn't help but notice that he looked a little haggard and she gave herself a mental note to find out when the next full moon was.

She got to Cal's door and inhaled deeply, taking a moment to structure what she was going to say without making herself look to foolish before she raised her hand, ready to knock on the strong oak that was his front door…

00000

Hermione's eyes peeled open slowly as the sunlight peeked at her through the slats in her blinds and she rolled over in annoyance, burying her head further into the bed sheets, trying to block out the annoying ever-present sun, which just wouldn't go away despite it being the middle of winter.

With an annoyed grunt she rolled out of bed, her bones feeling heavy and they ached, burning painfully right down to her core. She trudged to the bathroom blindly reaching for her toothbrush and going through the motions of getting ready for the day, wondering if she was going to get any interesting customers that day or if it was going to be the same as it always was.

After she'd gotten ready she left her apartment, closing her front door with a resounding click, shooting a glance at Remus' door and wondering if he would turn up at work today or if he was 'visiting his sick mother.'

"So, did you and Cal have fun?" Hermione turned to look at Natalia as she sauntered out of her own apartment, the door automatically closing and locking behind her. "I bet you did. You know, you're a sweet and innocent girl but I bet you're dirty."

"Natalia, do we really need to talk about that?" Hermione blushed, folding her arms across her chest as she began to feel uncomfortable at the change of topic.

Natalia of course didn't look at all effected by the awkwardness of the conversation and shrugged, leaning against the wall next to Hermione, propping the sole of her foot on the wall behind her, the striking difference between the red high heel and the pale beige walls was almost painful to look at.

"You know, I'd love to ride on that gia –"

"Natalia! We didn't do anything like that!" Hermione said quickly, not at all happy with where this conversation seemed to be going. "We just talked."

Natalia shot her a look that, if Hermione didn't know any better, was almost relieved. "You just…talked?"

"Yes! I got to his door and I –" Hermione cut off as he brain went into overdrive, trying to remember the talk that she had meticulously planned beforehand, but she couldn't remember it. The last thing that she had been fully aware off was getting ready to knock and the door and then a sudden _warm_ feeling that started from her toes and then up, enveloping her body in a way that made her feel accomplished, like she'd completed what she set out to do before she returned to her apartment…

That was a protective enchantment. One that she had used regularly while she, Harry and Ron had been on the hunt for the Horcruxes and had been very effective…If she hadn't tried to explain to Natalia what had happened, then she would most likely have not even realised that she'd been tricked.

As the realisation hit her, Natalia whistled low in her throat and gestured with her head towards the staircase and she just knew that Cal was there. Unable to help the instinct, she turned to see him descending the stairs with Caitlyn who Hermione hadn't seen properly since their first introduction when she first moved into the complex almost a month ago, but Hermione didn't really pay her much attention.

Instead, her focus was on Cal and her brain was frantically thinking of why he'd _have_ a protective enchantment and why he'd use it on _her_.

She tried to stomp down the inquisitive nature that she had that needed to know, but her efforts were futile when Cal flashed her a quick smile and wink as Caitlyn talked a mile a minute to her neighbour, shooting a cheery wave at both her and Natalia before she literally skipped out, dragging Cal behind her.

She needed to see him again, just to know what he was hiding.

Looked like she had a date to make. Pity that it was the wrong man.

_**A/N:**__ And here's chapter thirteen and I hope that you like it. _

_I told you that Cal would be important…He's gonna play a much bigger role as the story progresses as will the rest of her neighbours who we haven't seen much of yet. _

_Kelly _

_xxx _


	14. The Full Moon Part One

**Disclaimer**: _I do not own Harry Potter or anything Harry Potter related. Unfortunately._

**Playing God**

**Chapter Fourteen **

"Well, we could break into the TriWand and steal a whole vat of Fire Whiskey – Then we could just hole up in the Shrieking Shack with it until dawn breaks then scurry on home," James finished telling Sirius his 'elaborate' plan for the Full Moon that night.

Sirius shook his head slowly and clicked his tongue, "oh James, what a simple mind that you have," Sirius grinned wickedly, doodling a picture of a lion (ever the Gryffindor) on some incredibly important document…Or whatever Kingsley had placed in front of him an hour ago. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

James scowled across the office towards his best friend and threw a roll of Spell-o-tape at Sirius' head with surprising accuracy that caused Sirius to duck before it indented into his beautiful head.

"No, no sneaking around Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade – we do it so often that I'm surprised that we haven't been seen yet. No, we're going somewhere else."

James stared at him blankly, twirling his quill around in his fingers, resting his head on his hand, "You're being strangely cryptic, Sirius."

"Yes! I'm building the suspense," Sirius explained as he lounged back in his chair, lifting his feet to rest them on the corner of his desk, his fingers interlocked behind his head. "Have I succeeded?"

"Oh yeah, I'm on the edge of my seat." James said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes and sat back in his own chair, his arm coming up to rest along the back of it as he twisted his body sideways.

"Well, if you're gonna be a bitch I just won't tell you." Sirius shrugged as he blew a strand of ebony hair away from his face and it moved back to rest against the side of his head away from his line of sight.

After a few moments of awkward silence, James sighed loudly and his head fell foreword so that his chin was pressed against his chest.

"You sighed audibly. Why?" Sirius asked, a huge grin adorning his face. He'd been James' best friend for nine years – of course he knew anyways.

"Are you gonna tell me what your idea is?" James asked, annoyance tinging his words slightly.

Sirius clicked his tongue once and shrugged. James quite literally growled low in his throat in frustration.

"Okay," he said excitedly, swinging his feet down and leaning across his oak desk in his excitement – he could feel an adventure coming on and that always got the adrenaline pumping through his veins, lifting his spirits. He knew it was cruel to think this but the Full Moon was his favourite time for two main reasons: 1) He got to be with his three best friends every month without fail, no matter what life had thrown at them and 2) it was adventure time! "We're going on an expedition – We're going to explore the Forbidden Forest in-depth over the next few months."

James stared at him blankly, blinking once as Sirius' words entered into his mind and he attempted to make sense of them. Sirius was practically bouncing in his seat in pure happiness.

"…I don't know, Sirius. I mean, we do some dangerous stuff but we've always steered clear of the Forbidden Forest." James bit his lip in thought as a frown furrowed his brows together and Sirius nodded, having expecting this response from at least one of his friends, although a tiny bit disappointed that it was James who had argued with him.

"Of course we have, because we didn't want to put any of the Hogwarts students in danger but we're not going to go through it that way. We're entering through the back –" and, just because they were immature, both of them stopped momentarily to giggle at that particular wording before Sirius carried on, "– and explore that section before moving further foreword every time. Think about it, James, who else would have done that?"

"What do you mean?"

"We could be the first people to completely learn the way of the Forbidden Forest."

"Sirius, I think that belongs to Hagrid."

"Nah," Sirius argued, waving that comment away with his hand, "he has a great handle on it, sure, but we – you and I…as well as Remus and Peter – will be the first ones to fully understand it. Hell, if we needed to we could live in it."

James shook his head, "how on Earth would that help us?"

"It would if we were being hunted down." Sirius retorted, crossing his arms across his chest, confident that he was going to win this.

"Sirius, there's…horrible things in there." James said quietly, a hint of embarrassment tinging his cheeks pink as he lowered his hazel eyes.

"You are aware that we will have an eight-foot tall werewolf with us, right?" Sirius asked rolling his own eyes at his best friend.

"Oh yeah!"

Before Sirius could insult his best friend for his own stupidity, Kingsley walks into their office like he was freaking God or something and perched himself on the edge of the desk, rolling up the royal purple sleeves on his robe. "I need you two."

"I don't know, Kingsley, I'm not really into threesomes with two guys, but if it'll give me a promotion then come here bab-Ow!" Kingsley's hand coming into contact with the side of his head hurt and Sirius rubbed the aching skin with his left hand, his right sending his boss a very rude gesture.

Kingsley laughed at Sirius and shook his head as if he had no idea what he was going to do with him and Sirius grinned doggedly, pushing his chair away to stand up and reach for his star, feeling the thrill of the chase already seep into his bones. "What do you need us to do, boss?"

"I need you two to track down Jamie Lynn Hollow – Dan Tussal has identified her as a co-conspirator about the attack on _firmitas _the other week."

Sirius frowned as he remembered the desperate sounds of Hermione as first she tried to get him to let go of her so that she could go help _Cal_ (he even though the name with anger), the heat-wrenching sound of her sobbing as she collapsed to her knees and then the hollow tone of her voice as she told him that she viewed herself as a monster.

Speaking of Hermione… "We're on it, Kingsley…I was just wondering sir if you could do a little tiny favour for me?"

00000

Hermione leaned against the counter as her fifth customer left the book store, a paper bag clutched in her left hand, her bright neon nail varnish striking against the bland brown. She sighed tiredly and rubbed her face wearily letting her eyes scan the book store, noticing that Caitlyn was stood by the romance novels that Hermione hated to admit that she read as her guilty pleasure.

She stood straight and walked towards her. As she neared the small woman, she noticed that she was swaying on her feet lightly, humming a song happily under her breath. Hermione felt a smile tugging on her own mouth at the innocence that radiated off the woman before here

"Hey, Caitlyn." She greeted as she leant against the wooden bookshelf, "need any help?"

"Hermione!" Caitlyn's blue eyes widened as she looked up at Hermione and she threw her arms around her in a tight bear hug that took Hermione by surprise and made her feel a little uncomfortable – being friends with boys for almost ten years, their hugs were few and far between and when they happened (Aside from life-or-death situations) they lasted all of three seconds – Caitlyn was holding tight to her. "Oh! I know that you've been here for like, a month already, but I really think that we should throw you a party!"

"Caitlyn, I don't –"

"Great! I can go and buy some balloons, but I think that I might already have streamers in here…" she let go of Hermione to open her bright pink satchel and streamers literally exploded everywhere, causing Hermione to jump and everyone in the store to look at them. "Yay! I do have streamers!" Caitlyn clapped her hands happily before she cleaned up the mess with a simple wave of her wand and they all flew back co-operatively into her bag. "Oh, this is going to be So. Much. Fun!"

Hermione once again tried to tell her that parties weren't really her thing, that she'd much rather just curl up in her bed or on her sofa reading a book, but she was already talking again, "sorry that I didn't stop and talk to you this morning, but I was on a mission! You see, Cal has been mister secret keeper these last couple of days and I wanted him to go out with me, because we used to go out all of the time, but then he got all moody and broody and it's my job to turn that frown upside down!"

Hermione's smile widened as Caitlyn rambled on, her right hand gesturing wildly in random movements that had nothing to do with what she was saying; a girl like Caitlyn, early twenties and dancing through life, not letting the Worl knock her down, was really hard to find and she was reminded almost painfully of Luna and she felt a pang in her heart as she remembered that she hadn't even said goodbye to the blonde who had been her firm friend since her fifth year.

"Caitlyn –"

"Yes, Hermione?"

Hermione chuckled as Caitlyn's eyes fixed on her, seemingly sparkling as the sun slid through the window panes, illuminating her. "…Do you happen to know _why_ Cal changed?"

"No." Caitlyn said sadly and her whole body sagged, like a deflated balloon – even her insane curly blonde hair seemed to straighten slightly. "I wish he would just tell me…It's not like I'll judge him or kill him…Well, unless he's become a Death Eater, in which case then, as my duty as a _human_, I'd have to tell Sirius and James about him, but…" She looked sketchily sideways before leaning closer to Hermione and lowering her voice to a whisper, "I went snooping around in his apartment and found nothing. Plus, no Dark Mark, so he's good, he's just being sad…" She tilted her head at 90 degree angle, tapping her chin in thought, "maybe it's the lack of parties…"

Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes in amusement as Caitlyn babbled on about this party that she guessed she had no choice but to attend and she took a mental step back, just letting her words wash over her. It wasn't unpleasant. Although Hermione was surprised that Caitlyn had just handed over the information about her to Cal after only having being asked.

"What do you think? I know that you're pretty close friends with Madame Rosmerta, so we can invite everyone in the complex as well as your friends! Ali!" Caitlyn yelled and Ali popped up from behind the bookshelf next to them, a bright warming smile on her pixie face.

"Yeah?"

"Party. In four days. My Courtyard. 6pm." She nodded once at her instructions, "my immediate thought was, 'tonight, right?' but then I remembered that Remus is visiting his mum today and it would be a shame for him to miss out on this!" she clapped once, turned on her heel with her arm above her head, pointing at the ceiling, "I'll be back, young Miss Jean. I need to buy supplies!"

And with that, Caitlyn was gone. Hermione was surprised that there wasn't a dust shaped cloud where she was just stood. And so had ended her first real encounter with Caitlyn and Hermione chuckled as she replayed the conversation over and over again in her head. Her mind told her that she should really be annoyed by everything that Caitlyn was, but the years of fighting in a war had taught her that people with the same mind-set as Caitlyn were rare and should be kept that way.

She remembers the first time that she saw Luna Lovegood cry, it had torn at her heartstrings and made her ache deep inside, knowing that the war was killing the optimistic nature of the good and innocent and Hermione herself had cried as Luna was being consoled by George Weasley as they took in the destruction of her childhood home.

"Galleon for your thoughts?"

Hermione jumped and spun around to see Cal stood there, his eyebrow raised in amusement as Hermione's skin flushed in embarrassment at being caught not doing her job properly, "oh, Cal, sorry I was just—"

"Don't worry about it," Cal chuckled, sliding his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket a small smile on his face, "I was just looking for Caitlyn."

"Oh, she's gone." Hermione told him, a little disappointed that he had come here to talk to her, which would have just made her plan a little easier to follow.

"Of course she has," he sighed, his hand smoothing over his light brown hair that was secured in its usual ponytail at the nape of his neck, "I swear, you can't keep tail of the crazy midget. I don't know how Jack does it." He shook his head, following Hermione as she moved back to the till.

"Well, he loves her." Hermione said, leaning over the oak wood as Cal's hands slid across the wood and he hunched his back, balancing his weight foreword.

"That he does." Cal nodded, his long fingers tapping on the wood. "I haven't seen you since _firmitas_ …How you holding up?"

Hermione blinked in surprise, for some reason not expecting Cal to bring the incident up, "I'm okay now." She said truthfully, "what about you?"

Cal shrugged one shoulder, sighing lightly, "I can hold my own, Hermione."

"So I've been told."

"Listen…" Cal starts, but he's interrupted by an old woman with a kind smile ready to purchase her choices. Hermione greeted her fondly, recognising her as someone who frequents the book shop often. After she'd rang up the books, the woman left with a friendly wave and a promise to come by next week to buy some more books.

"You were saying?" Hermione asked patiently, returning to her previous posture of leaning her elbow on the counter, her brown eyes looking up at his questioningly.

"Yeah…Hermione, I know that the last time wasn't brilliant…In fact, it was awful, but I was wondering if…maybe do you want to try again?"

Hermione blinked rapidly as she tried to make sense of what she'd just heard…Cal was asking her out?

Should she really be surprised? He had asked her out the first time, maybe that was more than just a friend-date?

"Sure," she smiled gently, "tonight?"

"Well, we are eager, aren't we?" Cal grinned, but Hermione could tell that he was just teasing her.

"Guilty," her smile widened.

Cal nodded and opened his mouth to tell her something else, but the door opened quickly and Caitlyn ran in, her arms laden with bags and bags of what Hermione just knew were party supplies. "Okay, I have everything except for the cake, because of course I have to bake it, so I have all the ingredients."

As she was babbling, Cal had rolled his eyes and had taken half of the bags off of her, placing his hand low on her back and leading her to the door. "I'll pick you up at nine?"

"Nine it is!" Hermione called after them as the door shut. She watched through the large window as they walked down the street, Caitlyn bouncing with each step as if the pavement was made of trampolines.

A part of her was seriously looking forward to this date as more than just finding out what Cal was up to – he was nice, sweet and charming – why couldn't she be excited?

While Sirius was busy with busty, tall, model-esque girls, couldn't Hermione be with someone else? Her and Sirius had to be end game – that was the whole reason that she was here – but it hadn't happened right away, so why couldn't Hermione have fun?

Sirius sure was.

She tried to stomp down the feeling of guilt that festered under her heart.

00000

Jamie-Lynn actually hissed at them as they shoved her down into a seat in an interrogation room, her dark green eyes narrowed into slits as she attempted to scratch James with her talons.

James just slammed her hand onto the table and the chair instantly sprouted chains that wound around her skinny arms, legs, torso and even wound around her neck, immobilising her.

"You will all pay for the mistake that you've made today," she threw her head back as best as she could in this hard back chair, her long brown hair becoming tangled in the chains, "he'll find out that you have me and he'll come save me. He'll save me…"

"News flash," Sirius said as he rounded the table and spun the chair around so that he straddled it, "he doesn't care."

"You don't know!" She shouted, struggling against the chains, "No! You don't know the power that he possess!"

"I can tell you that he won't win." James said, leaning against the wall.

"No! You lie! You will be punished!" She screeched, her dark eyes rolling in their sockets. "He'll find you! He'll find you and kill you!"

"I'm sure that he will," Sirius said sarcastically, resting his arms across the back of his chair. "He'll rip the bones from my flesh or something, right?"

"No." She said quietly, "he'll come into your house while you're sleeping and take everything that you love from you. Then, and only then will he kill you. First your children and then your wife and then…then you."

Sirius looked at James in his peripheral vision, knowing that since he'd got married and now that Lily was pregnant that the death of his family had been one of his greatest fears, particularly since both his parents had died the year before.

"We've heard it all before," James said dismissively and Sirius was relieved that he hadn't been affected by this threat.

"Then more reason to believe it, don't you think?"

Before either of them could retort, someone knocked on the two-way mirror that Sirius had insisted that the interrogation rooms get after seeing a muggle TV cop-show that featured them.

They both left the room and Jamie-Lynn Hallow laughed hysterically as they clicked the door shut.

"James, are you sure that you're able to conduct this interrogation?" At Kingsley's question James seemed to contemplate it and Sirius felt bad for him – but he also knew that if he showed weakness then he could get penalised for it by the Minister.

"Sir, I'm sure." James eventually answered and Kingsley nodded, directing him to go back into the interrogation room. However, when Sirius went to follow, Kingsley stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Not you, Black. There's something that we need to discuss." With a raise of his eyebrow Sirius steps back away from the interrogation room as James begins to question Jamie-Lynn Hallow again, his voice with a certain edge to it that made the hair on the back of Sirius' neck rise in concern.

"What is it?"

"Well, I looked up Hermione Jean's past like you asked and I think that you should see it." Kingsley says, holding a light blue file in his hands.

"Kingsley, I've already told you that I don't want to read it, I just wanted to know if she has some horrible past and I didn't want specifics on it." He knew that if Hermione found out that he'd been snooping around into her past, something that she hadn't told him about yet, she'd most likely just kill him and that would be the nicest thing she could do. Still, he couldn't help but be curious about her life before she arrived here and just why she spoke like a soldier when all of the fighting is happening in Britain. Just a ballpark was what he was asking for here.

"Black, look." He opened the folder and Sirius' eyes were instantly drawn down onto the papers before him – or, more correctly, paper.

All that was in that file was her home address, work address, Gringott's bank Vault number and a brief witness statement from when they were investigating the murder of Jacob Gregan from over a month ago. That was her file. There was nothing in there about her past, her life, her family, her school, nothing. It was like Hermione Jean had appeared from nowhere.

00000

The pain was excruciating – as soon as the moonlight touched his skin it scorched as if it was on fire, sending him to the deepest caverns of Hell. He couldn't help the low moan of anguish as his head fell back and banged against the crumbling wall and he felt plaster settle on his shoulders and down his neck.

His lungs expanded rapidly, desperate to intake air as a hand, warm, calloused and strong settled on his shoulder, anchoring him. "It's okay…" it was saying soothingly, the thumb rubbing in small circles keeping his grounded momentarily before the hand disappeared and a quick "it's time," sounded before being followed by a gruff bark that echoed around him, drilling into his mind as his eyes came into sharp relief – he was staring at the lone light bulb hanging from a frayed cord in the middle of and he was almost blinded by the sheer brightness illuminating from it, seemingly trying to be the sun. With a low moan he buried his head in his hands, not at all surprised by the feelings of his nails – which had sharpened into points – digging into his scalp. A lone drop of liquid travelling down his temple and the bitter scent of it told him that he had drawn blood.

The worst was yet to come.

His body was thrown unceremoniously foreword and he landed on his fists, his fingers cracking and twisting as they fused together and he developed a strange pins and needles sensation over his entire body that was only growing more prominent as the hairs pushed violently through his skin; the pain was so intense and so unexpected that no matter how many transformations he went through, that would still cause a ghostly scream to fall from his lips. He screwed his eyes shut in preparation for the next stage of his transformation as he could feel his teeth all move in his mouth as his jaw unhinged and was pushed forward, his scream turning from a humans into an animals.

His shoulders broadened, his feet elongated as his heels left the floor and his weight was pitched foreword – his spine stretched and he could feel his vertebras crack and strain, trying to accommodate to this new change brought on by the silver surface of the full moon. His tail bone snapped out and he bit into the hairy flesh of his forearm to try and quell the howl of pain and he winced as he tasted the coppery flavour of his own blood before a red mist circled his brain as the transformation was complete.

With shaking, shuddering breaths, he lay still on the floor for a few moments waiting for the pain to alleviate even just slightly before he dare move.

Something cold and wet pressed into the back of his head and he started in shock, his head moving back quickly and a snarl making its way onto his mouth, ready to protect, defend, _survive_…

It was a dog. A big, black scruffy dog. The werewolf blinked slowly before throwing his head back and howling, hoping to hear an answer so that he wasn't alone in this world.

The Dog barked once, happily, and jumped around, his tail waving happily from side to side and The Werewolf followed it in confusion before thinking that The Dog needed to go because he needed to get out, to go home, to _survive_…

Before he could even think about it, his hand (claw…paw…) lashed out through the air as quick as a whip, intending to slice across The Dog's face. Instead of making contact with the matted fur though, a stag appeared from nowhere and slammed into The Werewolf, pushing his body up against the wall before The Dog joined him, barking once more as it wrapped it's body around his feet, stopping him from lashing out.

Not that The Werewolf didn't try. With a cry of outrage and fear, it mustered all its strength and used its powerful muscles to propel both animals across the room, where they landed with a painful sounding thud, a whimper emitting from The Dog.

Good.

The Werewolf descended upon them, his jaws gnashing fiercely, desperately, and his teeth clamped around the back leg of The Stag and was ready to bite down and pull back when something small and brown dangled in front of his eyes, obscuring his view.

Another enemy.

He needed to get away, needed to fight, needed to _survive_…

He let go of his first prey and shook his head, trying to get rid of the small rodent nested on his head, but the sharp sting of tiny claws in his skin told him that The Rat wasn't going anywhere.

Panting desperately, he looked at The Dog and The Stag, both already on their feet but not poised to attack. The black Dog barked again and sat down, his tail wagging happily as his tongue lolled out his mouth a grin plastered onto its face. Beside him, The Stag was leaning elegantly against the wall, his hoof crossed over each other – it looked well at ease, but more than ready to defend.

The Rat had since scurried down his body, as if sensing the change in The Werewolf's demeanour and it moved rapidly across the floor, The Dogs nose moving down allowing the rodent to jump onto it and crawl on top of its own head.

These animals had distinctly human tendencies and that made The Werewolf curious…They were calm, as if they already knew what was going to happen, already knew him. Did _he_ know these creatures?

The Dog barked a few more times and stood up, padding over towards The Werewolf and boldly jumping up so that it's front paws were resting just on The Werewolf's shoulders. The Werewolf grunted in annoyance and confusion and went to move back, but the dog held on tight and seemingly refused to let go, slopping licking The Werewolf's face. Looking towards The Stag he didn't seem to want to disagree when it tilted his head, his antlers pointing out the only door, which had broken off its hinges and had claw marks scrapped all on the inside. _Did I do that?_

Fear suddenly coursed through his veins as he realised that he didn't want to hurt these animals because they weren't afraid of him. He watched as The Rat scampered out the room and the dog pushed off his shoulders and landed back on all fours, his nose in the air as if he had just caught the scent of a nearby hare. He too bounded out the room after the small Rat, leaving only The Stag and The Werewolf.

Another tilt of The Stag's head told him that he should go first. The Werewolf shook his head once, still not sure about these creatures, unsure whether to befriend them or kill them.

The Stag nodded his head again and The Werewolf slowly moved forewords to rest his weight on all fours and he slowly moved to the door, keeping his eye on The Stag, the most dangerous of the four. It was then that The Werewolf realised that he wasn't leaning against the wall in an effort to look elegant, but because his back leg had been injured when The Werewolf attacked.

What had he done?

He lowered his head in regret, but The Stag merely pressed his head against his own, conveying that he knew and that he didn't mind – forgiveness had just been handed over without needing a single word.

Still, there was one word spinning around The Werewolf's head…

…_Adventure. _

_A/N: So, here's chapter 14! I hope you like it! _

_Caitlyn, by the way, is based on Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic...I don't care that I'm almost 21, I love that show! She's going to be the comic relief character when things are getting a bit dicey...She's very Luna-esque but more so :)_

_This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer but I think it was getting too long, so I split it into two seperate chapters...You should be getting Part Two very shortly, I'm more than half-way through with it. _

_Writing Remus' transformation was incredibly difficult - probably the hardest thing I've ever wrote so I hope it's okay to you guys!_

_Thanks for reading!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	15. The Full Moon Part Two

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Harry Potter. It's a shame really, so many good characters would still be alive had I written them…Sirius, Fred, Hedwig…None would have perished._

**Playing God**

**Chapter 15**

"Your coat, M'Lady."

"Why thank you, kind sir." Hermione gave Cal a little curtsy before turning her back to him, allowing him to help slide her coat up her arms and over her shoulder. They were just leaving the restaurant that Cal had taken her to and Hermione had enjoyed herself immensely. The night had been filled with fantastic food, intelligent conversation and a lot of laughter from both their parts. Cal was someone who Hermione got on with easily and she was surprised to find that lying to him and telling him her fabricated back story was harder than she'd thought it was going to be.

They left the restaurant with a cheery wave to their waiter as he escorted her with his hand at the small of her back, keeping close to her as the icy wind struck them harshly once they'd stepped outside.

"Do you want to apparate?" He asked, his Irish accent rolling off his tongue and making Hermione's stomach tighten – while he and Seamus Finnigan both shared an Irish Accent, there was something undeniably sexy about Cal's that effected Hermione way more than Seamus' ever did.

"Sure," she shrugged, smiling when Cal's hand wrapped around her own and their fingers laced together as he moved closer, tightening his grip momentarily before she felt the claustrophobic, tight feeling that she always experienced through apparating before being met with the relief of breathing fresh air once they'd reached their address. A quick glance at her watch told her that it was nearing one in the morning and as she saw the full moon hanging in the dark sky littered with dazzling stars, she hoped that Remus was okay right now.

Then she remembered, quite fondly, that he was with his three best friends in the whole world and a tiny voice in Hermione's mind told her that he'd be just fine.

"Well, thankyou for a great night," Hermione said smiling up at Cal whose head was tilted to the side with a questioning glance at her, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Wait, you think this is the end of the date?" Cal asked, chuckling slightly, "no, not at all. Hermione, we have some things that we need to talk about."

"Errm…Okay…" Hermione said hesitantly and went to sit on the edge of the fountain, tucking her purple A-Line skirt underneath her before she sat down, but Cal's hand on her forearm stopped her.

"No, Hermione, not here. Let's go to mine."

Instantly, Hermione was hit with a low buzzing nervousness that was starting to creep up over her skin and make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "No, Cal, I don't think that's a good id-"

"Tell me, Hermione, what are the 90's like?"

The nervousness and suspicion instantly morphed together to create something close to terror, swirling around her stomach and trapping her heart in an iron fist. Her mind was frantic, trying desperately to piece together a response which was both completely realistic and didn't make her look like she was lying. Which of course, she was.

"What are you talking about, Cal? The 90's haven't happened yet."

"Not for me."

Hermione stood up, a frown marring her face as she surveyed him, her brown eyes moving from his hair secured into a ponytail, down his white shirt and black waistcoat and down his jeaned legs, her eyes scanning his form for Dark objects, ones that would be a threat to her. She saw none; she didn't even see his wand.

"Look, I can tell by your squinty eyes that all trust and faith in me has just been lost –"

Hermione couldn't help but snort incredulously, cutting off his words as she shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, what do you expect when you just asked me how the 90's were? That I'd fabricate some wonderful fairy-tale story for you?"

"No." He said simply, his hands sliding into the front pockets of his black jeans, his shoulders subtly moving up as his head tilted to the side, "otherwise you wouldn't be here."

Hermione stared at him for all of three seconds as her brain caught up and reminded her of the protective enchantment placed in front of his home and the uneasy feeling that curled low in her stomach, letting her know that there was something strange about Cal, and Caitlyn's echoing words that he had changed.

How did he know her secret?

"I don't understand. What are you talking about?" Hermione took a step back as she felt fear trail over her skin lightly, causing her to give a full-body shudder.

"You know, Hermione, for someone so smart you sure leave a lot of things unanswered. If I were you, I'd have asked someone one very important question."

Hermione swallowed thickly, fully aware that if he did something to her now then he would get away with it. Slowly, she slid her hand into the opening of her bag, her fingers curling around the smooth wood that gave her a boost of confidence and security. "And what question would that be?"

"Where did they get the mirror from?"

His words sent a jolt of shock through her body as she remembered the mirror, her transportation to get to this time, now, to help Sirius. Severus had given it to her but she was right – she hadn't questioned them on exactly where they had gotten the mirror from and now she was wishing that she had. She knew that she should keep going, trying to convince him that she didn't know what he was talking about, but she knew that she'd been caught out and she only had one question for him.

"How did you know?" Hermione knew that the game was up for her as far as Cal was concerned, and she couldn't help but feel incredibly annoyed at the thought that she'd been here for a few weeks and already somebody knew her secret.

Cal smiled down at her, his thumbs hooked into the belt loops of his jeans, his ring glinting in the moonlight that was reflected beautifully on the unmoving waters of the fountain behind her. "I'm the reason that you're here, Hermione. The mirror is mine."

Hermione stared at him in shock for a good five minutes as his sentence wheeled chaotically around her mind, repeating itself over and over again.

"Yours? What do you mean?"

"It's been in my family for generations. I'm not sure how they got a hold of it and to be honest I don't really care. All that matters is that I have it and, evidently, you get it." He leaned against the wall by her door, his eyebrow nearing his hairline as she stared at him, her brain still trying to catch up with the conversation.

"But…How did you know that I come from the…Well, not from here."

"Your backstory. Me and Albus were discussing that a few weeks before you showed up as we plotted out Plan B. It's a good thing that we did, because we clearly needed it. Listen, I won't bite you, hurt you, kill you so can we please go inside?"

Hermione seemed to come to her senses and she nodded dumbly, grasping her keys with her fingers from her bag and sliding them into the lock, Cal stood right behind her, his body heat reaching out to her and warming her from the inside out. She shoved her door open and stumbled inside, her hand reaching for the light switch and bathing the room in a soothing light.

"Good, now I'm not scared of being overheard. Sit." He commanded and Hermione felt a sense of anger at being commanded in her own house. Still, she perched on the edge of her couch as Cal collapsed down on the other side

"Lots of people are from Beauxbatons – That can't be the only thing." She said confused, her head tilted to the side allowing her crazy curls to fall off of her shoulder.

"It isn't." Cal said pleasantly, "I suspected when you just turned up out of the blue at the time me and Albus had planned to send a future order member back to, and I grew even more sure when you reacted to the tale of the Deathly Hallows – You knew what they were and, if you were a Muggle-born then you wouldn't have heard that story before. Or at least, not when you were a child and you wouldn't have reacted that strongly to an old children's tale – You understand the significance of the story because you _know_ they exist. You see, Hermione, you're a good liar but you're an open book.

"And then there was the attack on the coffee shop. Now, at first I thought that you'd took me there _because_ of the Death Eater attack – I thought that surely, being from the future, you'd know all about it and, for a moment, I was scared that you'd betrayed your mission, but then I saw your face through the window, when you laid eyes on Dan Tussal and I knew that you weren't here to kill off as many people in this time as possible, you just weren't aware that it had happened.

"Still, like you said, there must have been more and you're right. There's one more significant thing that led me to confront you about it tonight, sure that you were the Order Member who would help fix the future by fixing the past. Tonight, before we met up for our dinner date, I had to attend an Order Meeting and one of our members had some Intel on a girl who had appeared on the 1st January as if by magic. No trace, no school records, no past. And that girl was you."

There was a moments silence as Hermione let those words sink in, understanding that the reason that Cal knew about her was because of her file. A file that was accessible in the Ministry and one that somebody with clearance could look for.

Someone like an Auror.

She felt dread wash over her skin like ice – what if Sirius gained access to her file?

"Don't worry about that, Hermione – Now that I've identified you as the hero of this novella, some work can be done for that." He said soothingly, his hand reaching out to touch her shoulder, but she couldn't help but move away from his touch.

So Cal had never really liked her? He'd gone out with her those times just to test her? To see if she was from the 90's? The pivotal part of his plan?

Now she was angry. She was getting really sick and tired of being here, in this time and being hit with obstacles. She felt like she was wondering around in a Labyrinth and whenever she thought someone or something was her saving Grace and would point her in the right direction, she ended up deeper in the maze then when she'd first started and it was really starting to make her blood boil.

"So, what's your mission, soldier?"

"This is ridiculous! It doesn't make sense, Cal, if Albus knew that you were here, which he must do considering that you planned this with him, you'd think that he'd tell me! He should say, 'oh, hey Hermione, by the way, there's a guy called Cal, he's a friend, trust him, 'Opporwit' is the safety word to let him know', but did he say that? No!"

"Hermione, this is Dumbledore. Do you really think he's going to come out and say anything clearly to anyone, ever?"

Hermione sighed in annoyance at both Cal's words and Dumbledore's secrecy before she lounged back in her chair, grasping the bridge of her nose between her fingertips, trying desperately to fight off a migraine threatening to unfold across her temple and behind her eyes. "I guess you're right."

"I know I am, baby." Cal smirked and rolled his shoulders back and Hermione rolled her eyes in amusement, her temper gently simmering for now. "I'll ask you again, 'Mione, what's your mission?"

"No on 'Mione." She said, scrunching up her nose and shaking her head in distaste at the nickname, causing Cal to chuckle, "and a part of me still can't trust you on this, Cal. I'm sorry, I wish I could, but it just seems so…there's too many holes in this story."

Cal nodded once before rising from his seat, his long fingers tapping a complicated beat against his jean clad thighs, "I understand, Hermione. Hold my seat, I'll be back in a minute." He said, walking to the door with a slight swagger to his hips that had Hermione's eyes drawn down his body. She shook her head in annoyance and stood as well, adjusting her skirt as Cal left her flat, humming a song under his breath and letting her front door slam closed behind him.

At first, Hermione just stared at her front door, having no idea what to do with herself right now. Her thoughts were rebounding off of each other, spinning around and around, wondering whether or not she could trust this man, whether or not what he said had been true.

She wished that she could. She wished that she could take what he was saying at face value at believe that he was a good guy, one who would do her right and help her along…But she'd been fighting in this war for too long to trust someone that she'd only just met a few weeks ago and she was in no way prepared for the stab in the back that she feared would ultimately happen.

Then the front door swung open again and Cal sauntered in, his right hand clutched around the handle of a small hand-held mirror with a black cover over the reflective surface, the silver edging shining under her electrical lights. She instinctively reached for it, her fingertips almost grazing the cool surface before Cal moved it away from her, hiding it behind his back.

"Hermione, by using the Mirror of Cupio you have its magic flowing through you. You've read the legend behind these mirrors, right?" He didn't wait for Hermione's acknowledgment before he carried on, moving past her and wondering into the kitchen, placing the mirror face down on her counter and reaching for her kettle, "well, Pipa, the wife of Thomasius, the guy who –"

"originally created the Mirrors. I know who he is." Hermione told him, following after him, wondering how he could possibly make himself so comfortable in someone else's home. He and Natalia were startlingly alike.

"Very good," Cal praised, looking at her briefly over his shoulder at her and winking exaggeratedly, causing Hermione to roll her eyes, although she didn't fight the small smile tugging at her lips, "well, she used the second mirror, the very one that you've used, to declare that only one wish be granted on a mirror."

"I know this, Cal. I just want to check that it's the same one that's all –"

"No, Hermione you're not listening to me. You've made your wish. You can't have another one."

"I don't want another wish." She said, slightly offended that he'd think that's what she wanted the mirror for.

"I know that, and you know that, but the mirror doesn't. It'll know that you've already made a wish on it, had a desire to use it, and it won't like it. At all."

"Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." Hermione said quietly under her breath, remembering Arthur Weasley's poignant words that still struck a chord with her to this day and she moved her hand away.

Cal turned to look at her properly, coffee cup held in his hand, resting against his chest, his eyebrow raised. "I've had protection spells on my apartment for about a week since I got this." He said, nodding his head at the mirror sitting almost innocently in front of them. "I think Caitlyn is getting incredibly suspicious."

Hermione stifled a laugh as she thought back to Caitlyn earlier that day, who had admitted to her that a one point, she was wholly convinced that she had suspected Cal of being a Death Eater. She was shocked to realise that, with a quick glance at her clock, she was saw that it was nearing two in the morning. "What do we do now?" Hermione asked tiredly.

"We make a plan." Cal said simply, "but I know what you mean about not knowing my true intentions, so tomorrow, me and you are going up to Hogwarts to meet an old friend of ours." He said lightly, leaning his forearms on the counter before them, lifting the crème mug up to his lips and taking a long gulp, relishing in the hot beverage. "I'll come for you at 5, after your work is finished."

Hermione was a little taken aback once again by his commanding nature, but simply nodded her head in acceptance of his words, standing straight just as Cal finished his coffee and dispose of the dirty cup in the sink.

They walked together to the front door and Hermione felt almost claustrophobic beside him, a part of her still weary after his own admission.

"Well, good night Hermione. Tonight was…something else." He said coyly, a small smile on his lips. Before she could return the sentiment, he had bent his head down, moved his hands up to frame her face, and pressed his lips to his forehead.

And then he was gone, slowly sauntering up the stairs to his own apartment, looking at ease with everything that life had thrown at him and, for a moment, Hermione envied him.

00000

"PARTY!" Sirius groaned in annoyance at the loud outburst in front of his office door and, without moving his head from his hands, simply flashed whoever was there a crude sign with his right hand. "Well, that wasn't very nice was it? Come on, Sirius, up, up, up!"

"Caitlyn, what do you want?" He asked, slowly moving his head up, his muscles practically screaming at him in pain, his joints popping in their sockets. Whenever he felt like this on a normal morning, he knew that he'd had a good night. Whenever he felt like this on a full moon night, he knew that he'd had an amazing night.

"To invite you to a party, of course! Here's you're invitation!" She said merrily, sliding a rainbow coloured piece of parchment towards him, cut into the shape of a star.

"Is it your engagement party?" He asked, his eyes not adjusting to the words before him – he found himself too distracted by the swirling patterns appearing randomly before him and the occasional explosion of glitter that spontaneously appeared.

"No, silly, its Hermione's moving in party!"

"She moved in weeks ago, Caitlyn." Sirius informed her, his eyes going to the desk opposite him, sad to see it empty – After last night, James had barely been able to walk having fractured his leg in the Shrieking Shack, and he was at home resting with his loving, pregnant wife by his side to tend to his every need. It would have been sickening if Sirius wasn't envious at that moment.

Oh, he'd kill to have a woman at his beck-and-call today, making him a roast dinner, giving him a massage, taking care of him, rubbing him up in all the right places…

" – So shall I leave it here with you?"

"What was that?" Sirius asked, taken away from images of big brown eyes and silky, creamy skin, to Caitlyn holding up another invitation with raised eyebrows. With a giggle she repeated that she'd leave James and Lily's invitations with Sirius seeing as how James was playing Hooky today.

"Come on then, Sirius! Let's go get some dinner!" Before Sirius could either accept or decline any invitation that he'd been given today, Caitlyn was already out of his office and down the hall in a Nano-second, an old Muggle folk song on the tip of her tongue as she waved as passing Ministry Officials.

How this midget girl has become the deputy head of the misuse of Muggle Artefacts office at twenty-four, he'll never know. Yes, she was hard-working and like-able, but on the flip side she had a skipping mind and could be incredibly annoying.

Still, she seemed to lighten up people's day and with a smile and a shake of his head, he took off after her, proud to have her as one of his friends.

**A/N: **_Finished! And, the stupidly long wait for this is over. I'm never telling you guys when I'll next post because we all know I most likely won't. It's probably my worst trait. _

_Still, I hope you like this chapter and, as an 'I'm sorry' present, then Chapter 16 is going up with this as well, just so you get a little bit extra._

_Thanks for being patient!_

_Kelly_

_xxx _


	16. The Ally in the Rough

**Disclaimer**: _I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter and the magical World in which he now resides. _

**Playing God**

**Chapter 16 **

For Hermione the day never seemed to end. She kept glancing at the ticking clock fifteen minutes, feeling like an eternity had gone past in that time. By the time 5pm came around, Hermione was ready to tear her own hair out.

She hated feeling like this – it wasn't natural for her to not want to work or contribute to something that she was extensively involved in, but today she just wanted to curl up on her couch with a good book in front of her roaring fireplace.

Of course, that wasn't going to happen today, she realised when she saw Cal through the glass pane of the front door, tapping lightly on the wood. Ali sniggered beneath her hand as she flipped the 'open' sign to 'closed' and watched Hermione shrug on her coat, un-tucking her hair from beneath her collar, reaching for her bag.

"Cal Heartway." She said in a dreamy manner, hoisting her body up to sit on the counter, "if I could have a go on him, I'd die a happy woman."

"Ali!" Hermione said astonished at the pixie like girl sat before her, swinging her feet with innocence, a smile on her face.

"What? A woman's gotta eat!"

"Okay, I'm leaving now." Hermione said, not fighting the smile threatening to take over as she made her way across the shop floor, ignoring Ali's request to let her know just exactly how Cal tasted.

She opened the door with a half-smile, accepting Cal's proffered hand and closing her eyes as the tight feeling of apparition closed in on her, almost as if someone had wrapped a rubber band around her chest and tightened it, almost to the point of pain before it snapped off and she opened her eyes to see the rusty gates of Hogwarts before.

The feeling of safety that surrounded her instantly made tears spring to her eyes; It had been so long since she'd been here, since she'd been home.

Even though she had been involved in schemes and missions and adventures during her time at Hogwarts, she'd never felt under threat when she was in the walls of the castle – not until the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998 which saw her precious home destroyed, beautiful stonework and art pieces destroyed, the memories and ghosts that now haunted the old abandoned castle and the stench of death and torture around every corner had soiled the memory of Hogwarts for her, but as she and Cal walked closed to the beautiful castle, those thoughts and feeling slipped away as if she was trying to cup water in her hands and they were just trickling away, instead to be replaced with laughing faces, pranksters, bright days and caring teachers.

"You okay?" Cal asked in concern, his eyes bright.

Hermione nodded once, feeling for the first time that she'd been here that she could do this – she could save the Wizarding World if she would just give Sirius a chance. Maybe if she did, then nobody ever would feel unsafe in their home or feel that their best memories were torn away from them, instead to be replaced with dark, defying versions which were the regular fuels for nightmares.

They walked through the hallways silently, Hermione not even questioning how they had done so easily, the gates having opened when Cal tapped his wand against the giant lock and it had sprung open, wishing them a good day as they passed. By the time they got to the entrance of Dumbledore's office, Hermione had already guess that was their ultimate destination.

With a quick word of liquorice Wands, she and Cal were ascending the stairs to the Headmasters office and Hermione was feeling a mixture of nerves, revelation and happiness.

"Hello, Miss Jean. Mr Heartway told me that you would be joining us." She was greeted warmly by Albus Dumbledore, her mentor, who looked exactly as he did in her time that, for a moment, she thought that it was the Albus Dumbledore from the 90's stood before her; however, the glint in his eye was still shining bright as ever in these years and his hair was a vibrant silver instead of the worn grey that it had turned sometime in her sixth year and his hand was still immaculate and not black and decaying.

"Hello," she said shyly, feeling inadequate for some odd reason, stood before the greatest wizard of all time who she'd worked alongside, fought alongside and saved on a dozen different occasions.

"Please, have a seat." He gestured to the chairs on the other side of his majestic desk as he sat on his throne like chair, his fingers tapping a rhythmic beat against the arm, looking at her in such a way that she felt like she was a thirteen year old student again. "Cal tells me that you're a visitor. Is that right?"

"More like a new member of this community. I'm here forever now."

"Ahhhh…" He said slowly, his fingers coming together before his chin, his eyebrow raised slightly, "the magic of the mirror does work?"

"I told you that it would." Cal said from his place stood behind her chair, his arms folded over the top of it, leaning his weight against its strong frame, "I knew that once my Uncle became a class Quidditch Player that there was some truth to the story."

"You have the mirror in your possession?"

"Uncle died last week. When I went to his funeral I watched it rebuild itself, before my very eyes."

Dumbledore nodded at Cal's words, a deep humming sound emitting from between his lips in thought. "Do you have it on you now, Mr Heartway?"

Cal took the mirror out from his inside pocket and placed it gently on his desk before he propped his hip against the dark wood, his eyes showing his obvious amusement. "And don't call me Mr Heartway, Albie. It makes me feel like I'm forty years old and let me tell you, I have some stamina left in me, you old codger." He winked at Hermione whose jaw dropped open at the audacity that he had spoken like that to Albus Dumbledore, but he just chuckled, his fingers brushing the cool silver frame of the small mirror.

"I assume, Miss Jean, that it is I who hands this to you?"

Hermione nodded, "as well as Remus Lupin and Severus Snape." She told them, unsure if she'd said too much when she saw Dumbledore's expression fade to one of surprise.

"Huh…Snape turns good…Well, that's for sure a plot twist." Cal said almost cheerily, his arms crossed over his chest, crossing his feet at the ankle, "what turns that sour git to the side of the light?"

"I thi-"

"Before any of this story is revealed to us, I think what you are here for, Mr. Heartway, needs to take precedent," Dumbledore said with finality, raising from his seat and extracting his wand from up the sleeves of his turquoise coloured robes.

Cal rolled his eyes, but stood straight, heading from the desk and towards Hermione, extending his hand for her to take. She did so hesitantly, unsure of what their plans were.

He led her to a small picnic table situated in the corner of the room and he sat her down in one of the chairs (she noticed that it was the pink one) while he sat opposite her, his eyes on hers as he placed his right elbow on the table before him, as if they were about to engage in arm wrestling.

"No." Hermione said quickly, standing from her seat, not noticing that it toppled over, "what do you expect me to promise to you?"

"Nothing. Hermione, this unbreakable vow is for you, not me. I'm promising you my alliance and offering my silence to gain your trust." Cal told her calmly, not moving from his position.

"But Cal…Cal, you could die."

Cal shrugged, his shoulders rising briefly to his pierced ears before dropping back down, looking as if he had been defeated. "Then we'll know where my loyalties lie."

There was a silence in the office after that and Hermione felt as if she'd just been submerged in water. She'd only ever heard of one instance of the Unbreakable vow being used and that was between Severus Snape and Narcissa Malfoy, in which she begged her old Slytherin housemate to protect her son and to kill Dumbledore should Draco fail. Snape still had that curse hanging over his head, his promise waiting to be fulfilled and Dumbledore knew it.

She didn't want that for Cal.

"No, okay, I believe you!"

"Prove it." Cal said, moving his fingers as if to say 'come on' to her, almost as if it were a challenge. With a desperate look at Dumbledore (who was whistling under his breath, looking away from the both and rocking backwards and forwards on his heels with his hands clasped behind his back), she gave in with a sigh, turned and picked up her chair before sitting back in it. "Ready?"

"You don't have to do this." Hermione told him again, clasping her own right hand around his.

"I know," he answered honestly, just as the tip of Dumbledore's wands touched their bonded hands, "just makes life easier doesn't it?"

Hermione heard the solemn tone to his voice and she sighed, understanding that Cal wouldn't let her walk away of he didn't make her this vow. With a deep breath, she began: "Will you, Cal Heartway, promise to keep whatever I tell you that I deem top secret, between us and us alone?"

"I will." He said with finality as a thin stream of magic issued from Dumbledore's hand, winding around their linked hands like a fiery snake, burning red-hot momentarily against their skin.

"Will you be 100% truthful with me in return?" She asked hesitantly, feeling the nerves intensify as the atmosphere around them plunged, leaving her body shaking slightly.

"I will." Another strand flew out to wrap around them, causing the two of them to tighten their grip.

"And if, under extreme duress, you are asked about my past and secrets, will you keep quiet?" That was the one thing that she'd been dreading asking – having being tortured herself, she understood the need and desperation that fuelled your body to live and, by asking him this, she could potentially be blocking that from him.

When he answered in a strong tone and with such will and the third stream of liquid fire burned into their skin and sealed their vow, did Hermione know that, finally, in this time, she had an ally.

Taking another deep breath, she opened her mouth and, as simple as that, began telling them her story from the very beginning.

**A/N:** _And the next chapter is up within ten minutes of the previous one! _

_This chapter is just a filler chapter and, after this, the story will really kick off - I hope you like it!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	17. The Plan

**Disclaimer**: _Despite my countless wishes, the Harry Potter characters are not mine. Although, I thank JK Rowling for allowing me to play with them…In a non-creepy way…_

**Playing God**

**Chapter 17**

_Hello, _

_I'm sorry that I didn't get in touch with you earlier, I've just been so busy lately. _

_I hope that you can forgive my ignorance and I was wondering if yo would like to meet up soon? I'm uncertain as to your work schedule, so you'll have to let me know – Although I hope it can be before the 7__th__ February as Caitlyn has organised me (against my will, I would like to point out) a house warming party in our apartment complex and, of course you are invited, I'd like to get to know you in a much more…un-busy space?_

_Warm regards, _

_Hermione Jean. _

00000

_Hermione! _

_How nice to hear from you! Of course I'd like to meet up with you! How's Tomorrow sound? 3:00pm? The TriWand?_

_Ah, yes, Caitlyn will do that – I'm surprised that it's taken her this long to get around to it! She's normally straight on it! I'll definitely be there, but I know what you mean about it just being the two of us – I could really do with a female friend!_

_Hope to see you tomorrow!_

_Lily xx _

00000

Hermione's fingers were working rapidly to tear the napkin in front of her into little tiny pieces, her legs moving up and down under the table rapidly as her brown eyes were focused intently upon the entrance to the TriWand, a concoction of apprehension, nerves and utter panic swirling around in her stomach, battling for dominance over the little voice in her mind that kept repeating that everything would be alright.

Madame Rosmerta stopped by her table and refilled her Butterbeer free of charge, sending a friendly wink her way before heading back to the bar to serve the burly man who had just flagged her down.

With a nervous glance at her watch which told her that she had another ten minutes before Lily was supposed to be here anyway, her mind flashed back two nights before when a plan had been laid out between her, Cal and Albus Dumbledore.

"_Save Sirius, save the boy…It's quite remarkable actually." Albus said sadly, leaning back in his chair, a sad look tightening the corners of his eyes. She was used to seeing that look from her old headmaster, but it didn't stop her feeling the small pang in her heart that she now knew was the loss of her innocence. Being a soldier in this war would do that to you. _

"_That's it?" Cal asked, his expression one of confusion, "you're not supposed to stop Voldemort, just stop Sirius Black from being an idiot?"_

_Hermione nodded once, feeling like Cal was judging her slightly, "Harry has to be the one who defeats Voldemort."_

"_That's bullsh….scnickles." Cal corrected himself halfway through the word with a glance at Dumbledore, "the oppression will happen with or without this Potter boy…You mentioned a prophecy?" He paused to let Hermione nod, but before she could tell him what the prophecy entailed, he was speaking once more, "it might be more difficult without him, sure. But that doesn't mean it would be impossible…You also said that it could be a different boy! Couldn't we just save the Potter family, stop the boy from being killed, his parents would protect him and then, hey presto, we defeat the bad guy with 3 – 5 years of hard work?" _

_He was talking as if defeating Lord Voldemort would be a walk in the park…He had no idea how wrong he was. _

"_The prophecy will happen either way, no matter what we do. It's the prophecy that sets everything in motion." She had a small inner debate with herself before she decided that it would be best if they knew this, no matter how much she didn't want to tell them. "Voldemort split his soul into seven different pieces, across various objects. Not all of them have been created and we don't even know what all of them are in my time…Except for four…There's a diary, a ring, a locket and…I figured out a few years ago that Harry is one of them." She was surprised at the twist of her heart – she hadn't said those words aloud to anyone, afraid that just speaking the words would start an apocalypse. "In order to get Voldemort weak enough to defeat him, then he needs to split his soul to make seven – He'll make one when he returns in 1994, but right now? He needs to put a piece of his soul in Harry. The events that led up to James and Lily's death and Voldemort's disappearance need to happen exactly as they are about to…But, to give Harry the best chance of finding the others and to be brave enough to not fear death, he needs a guide from his childhood, to raise and nurture him and the only man that can do that with justice is Sirius Black."_

_There was a still silence that settled over the three of them, sat in Dumbledore's office as they registered her words and Hermione held back her tears. She had known for years that Harry would have to die at the end of the war, but the thought had been too much to bear, so she simply stopped thinking about it, pushed it to the recess of her mind, buried it deep under all the other information about Horcruxes that she'd acquired over the years._

"_He can't be defeated now?" _

"_No. Not for years. He'll be dormant for eleven years after his curse rebounds and puts another piece of his soul in Harry and then he'll rise up again, and then it's up to Harry."_

"_We'll be raising him like a pig for slaughter!" _

"_I know." Hermione said quietly, huddling into herself. She had never felt more ashamed, scared and ultimately sad – it was almost as if a Dementor was hiding in this room, sucking up all of her potential happiness in the future and showing it to her in the shape of Harry falling to his knees, dead. _

"_Hermione…Hermione, that's cruel." _

"_That's life." She could feel the bitterness well up inside her, the thought that this wasn't fair cartwheeling chaotically through her mind, numbing her. She felt like she was drowning in what could be's, what would be's, and what she had to do to make sure that two people died and a boy was left an orphan. _

_Another silence fell heavily upon them, broken only by the tired sigh of Cal as he rubbed his temples, a furrow between his eyebrows. "So…Sirius Black?"_

"_Sirius Black." Hermione repeated his name in confirmation, even though she knew that there was no need to do so – Cal had heard her loud and clear and she could tell by his tone of voice that he was ready to help her, come hell or high waters. _

"_Shouldn't be too hard, right?" _

"_You don't know Sirius Black as well as you think you do." Hermione said with a soft laugh, "he's a womaniser, a man who lives in the moment. It's hard to get a man like that to settle down in such a short time." _

"_Maybe you don't know him as well as you think you do." Cal retorted, sitting up straighter, his muscles tensing, "I've seen the way he looks at you – he feels something for you, Hermione, it's obvious."_

"_It's the mirrors magic. It's pulling him to me, I know that, but I have to be the one who pushes him off the edge and then I have to catch him. It'll take a while, I think."_

_Cal nodded once, stood and, with a flick of his wand, a blackboard rolled towards them from behind a large statue of Gregory the Great. "Let's get to work."_

Hermione was dragged back to the present by the chair opposite her being pulled out from under the table and a thin, willowy body dropping down to sit on it. She was greeted with dark red hair, brilliant green eyes and a soft smile. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Penny…" She said quietly under her breath, smiling at the woman opposite her who, with one words, somehow, managed to put Hermione at ease. "Sorry, I was just thinking of that party that I'm being forced to attend tomorrow."

"But you're the guest of Honour! You should be looking forward to it!" Lily laughed, "I am. It's been ages since I've let my hair down!" She turned in her seat to spot Madame Rosmerta and ask for a non-alcoholic Butterbeer and Hermione was struck by how easy this was turning out to be – When Cal had suggested that she befriend Lily, she had thought that it would be too difficult and it had taken Cal a long time to convince her that this was the best course of action.

"_Think about it Hermione, what does Sirius value above anything else? In anybody that he knows?"_

_Hermione looked at the blackboard intently where Cal had wrote keywords, drawn little diagrams and had briefly played a game of noughts and crosses. "Loyalty?" She answered hesitantly, feeling as if she were on a game show and the wrong answer would send her falling into a pit of green gloop. _

"_Loyalty. And who does he value in his life?"_

"_His friends." _

"_Bingo. Now, to show your loyalty, you have to work your way into the friend group and, the best way to do that? Befriend the only female in their group." _

"_Lily?"_

"_Lily."_

"_No." She answered instantly, the thought of being friends with someone who she knew was going to die was too much for her. "Absolutely not."_

"_Hermione, think about it for a second!" Cal pleaded, "it seems like the easiest way for you to be able to worm your way into Sirius's system, especially now!"_

"_No, Cal, I can't! I can't be around them knowing that in a year and a half they'll be dead, betrayed by their friend, someone who they believed that they could trust."_

"_Are you upset because you'll be hanging out with Lily…Or because you'll be around Peter?" Hermione had almost forgot that Dumbledore was also here, as he'd barely said a word since the Unbreakable Vow was made between Hermione and Cal almost two hours ago – it seemed as if he'd faded into the background, letting Hermione and Cal come up with their own plan. _

_Hermione felt something close to shame twist in her stomach as her cheeks flushed a light pink and she looked away, not used to being called out on her real reasons from anyone other than Harry, Ron and, for a while, Draco. It unnerved her that Dumbledore seemed to be able to read her openly and, judging by the glint in his clear eyes, it was obvious that he knew it. _

Almost half an hour later saw Hermione and Lily laughing together as the red-headed woman recounted a tale of her Hogwarts days which saw The Marauders acting like idiots which, according to Lily, they still did to this day. She wasn't at all surprised to learn this, considering that Sirius still acted like a child at heart even when he was well into his thirties, before his death in 1996.

Then a thought struck her with such force that she almost gasped: Would she still have to let Sirius die when he falls into the veil? Or, by saving him now, will she stop him from dying in 1996?

Was that what was supposed to happen? After she saved Sirius, stopped him from going after Peter Pettigrew and instead, stick around and care for Harry, was she supposed to go? And if so, where was she supposed to go?

She was so consumed by this sudden train of thought that she didn't catch what Lily was saying next, so the expectant look that she was faced with when she glanced at Lily caused a sheepish look to cross over her own expression.

"Sorry, I was lost in my own World for a while there – what was that?"

"I asked if you wanted to meet up again, after your party?" Hermione couldn't stop the groan from escaping when she thought of her upcoming housewarming party that Caitlyn was planning – she'd been cornered in her own courtyard by the preppy blonde haired woman, badgering her about what decoration theme she wanted. "I'm sure it won't be that bad. I'm not exactly a party girl myself." Lily confessed, "even less so now that I have a little one on the way." She shrugged, twirling the straw in her drink, placing her hand lightly on her stomach, "I'm still looking forward to it – Caitlyn's parties are always worth it. I promise."

There was something in Lily's tone which soothed Hermione and she knew in that moment that Lily would not only make an amazing mother, but an amazing friend to.

"I'd love to meet up after Caitlyn's party," she said, smiling brightly at her, "how about some time next week?"

**A/N:** _And Hermione and Lily are slowly becoming friends! She has allies, she has a plan, she's on a mission! _

_Of course, it's not all gonna go smoothly – if it did, this would be finished with pretty quickly! But I'm nowhere near finished with this, so expect a bumpy road ahead of our heroine :D_

_Thanks for reading and I hope that you liked it! _

_Kelly _

_xxx_


	18. The Party

**Disclaimer**_: I don't own Harry Potter – If I did, I would never have gotten Post-Potter Depression and instead, I'd just keep writing more books, unwilling to leave the amazing creation of Hogwarts behind!_

**Playing God**

**Chapter 18**

As Hermione entered her courtyard, she found herself unusually alert. She was keeping a look-out for a bubbly, blonde-haired woman who spoke like a hummingbird on crack and had this obsessive need to drag her from her home, comfy PJ's and reading materials to a party which she had no interest in.

Upon finding the courtyard empty, dark and perfectly tranquil, Hermione sighed happily, slipping the key into the lock and turning it, her ears tuned to the little _click_ that told her she was home free – it wasn't that she didn't appreciate Caitlyn's efforts, it was just she was a homebody, not a partier.

The little _click_ sounded and Hermione resisted the urge to cackle madly before she open her door with a flourish of success – and then jumped a good two foot in the air when there was an explosion of streamers flying towards her and she was bathed in sudden light as Caitlyn's voice screamed out "HAPPY WELCOME MOVING DAY! Even though you've been here a month already! Yay!"

Hermione stared open-mouthed at the amount of people who were pushing past her, exiting her apartment to file into the courtyard as Hermione tried to calm her furiously beating heat. "Surprise!" Caitlyn giggled, clapping her hands together as best she could while holding onto a candy-cane stripped mega-phone. "Are you surprised? Are you? Are you?"

She could say with complete honestly that she indeed was. "I-I didn't expect my flat to be the venue!"

"It's not the venue, it's the pre-party meeting place, silly!" Caitlyn scolded her as if it was something that she should have just known, "the venue for your party is the courtyard!"

"How did you even get into my fl-" before Hermione even finished her question, an old looking key was dangling from a long, elegant finger, the fingernail painted a vicious red.

"You gave me your spare key, bitch." After Natalia had got into her apartment after a nightmare a few weeks ago, Hermione had put every spell that she knew on her lock so that it couldn't be opened with magic. Still, she knew that it would be beneficial for her if other people could get in in case she was sick, injured or in trouble, so she gave spare keys to both Natalia and Cal – she had tried to give to Remus but she had retracted it instantly once he reminded her that his best friends _would_ steal it and that they _would_ prank her.

"Of course, I should have known that you had something to do with this, _Nat_," Hermione frowned as Caitlyn 'accio-ed' a yellow boom-box from her upstairs apartment and The Weird Sisters music blared from it as everyone cheered.

Natalia rolled her eyes at Hermione, crossing her arms over her chest and resting her weight on one-leg, the curve of her hip attracting the eyes of the closest group of men who Hermione had never seen before in her life. "I don't know why you're so surprised, _Herm_; You know that Caitlyn was throwing this party for you."

"I did." Hermione nodded her head in acknowledgement, "but I didn't expect it to be this…vibrant." She watched Caitlyn skip around the lip of the fountain, charming the water to fall in multi-colours instead of a nice, simple clear.

"Come on, Hermione. Let's party hard tonight!" Natalia said happily, grabbing Hermione's hand and dragging her to the fountain where someone had built a huge pyramid of shot-glasses, arranged so that they would all fill up once the top one was full and Madame Rosmerta just kept pouring.

"Let's not and say we did?" Hermione suggested meekly as Natalia passed her a drink.

"No chance."

00000

A Woman was sat, her back pressed to the wall behind her as she cradled something precious in her lap, her small hands running through the golden strands of the small boy, his head tilted to the side, his big brown eyes staring unseeingly at the family portrait which was propped up on the mantle-piece, waiting for its time to be placed on the wall.

She blinked once, slowly, mechanically, and two identical tears trailed down her cheeks, following the path of those that been before and the woman made no move to brush them away or hide them – she wanted the world to see her pain, even if she endured it in silence.

She had done all that she could, she knew that and yet…Yet she was the one to blame for allowing that…cruel, vicious person to get a hold of her son in the first place, to sneer and shriek, taunt and laugh as she lay immobile, almost as if she had been bound by invisible ropes which only seemed to tighten the more that she struggled to be free. And oh, how she had struggled. She had been desperate to reach her son, to sooth him as his body bowed from the floor, a long red jet of light erupting from the darkness, causing him to scream and scream and _scream_…

She had hoped, prayed that her neighbours would hear, that they would burst into her home and do what she could not. Save her son, her very soul from this damnation.

The front door opened and closed softly and the woman closed her eyes and let her head fall back as her hand tightened in her son's hair, afraid, so very afraid of what would happen now. "Honey?" Her husband, her sweet, kind, loving husband was about to walk in and witness the scene before him – furniture upturned, glass shattered, blood marks on the floor and a lost soul, clutching onto what was her salvation. "Honey are yo-"

He stopped dead, staring at her. She could feel his eyes staring in utter disbelief, confusion, pain…She allowed herself a moment, just a moment in the calm before the storm, to remember what had occurred her only hours before.

"_Please, I beg of you, please not – not my boy, please no…" _

"_Silence!" the poor woman stopped her plea's instantly, though not of her own volition. It was as if someone had cut her vocal chords, so that no sound could come out, whether she wanted to or not. She struggled harder against the invisible bonds that held her still, feeling them tightening around her chest like a rubber band, making it hard, so very hard to breathe._

"_It's okay, mama," the young boy's only thought to sooth his ailing mother even as he was being dragged roughly to his feet, a trail of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. _

"_It's really not okay, _mama_," the figure cloaked in darkness hissed, two eyes glinting menacingly in the darkness. "Your boy is an anomaly, a freak of nature that must be rectified."_

"_What are you talking about?!" the woman spat, having somehow regained the use of her voice, "he's my son!" She tried to reach desperately for him, to offer her comfort, but the bonds tightened so painfully that her ribs started protesting and she started wheezing painfully wet breaths, "There's nothing wrong with him! He's just a child!"_

"_There is _everything_ wrong with him!" The figure lost its temper and began shrieking, stamping their foot like a child. The woman was horrified to recognise that the voice was female._

"_Isn't normal? Of course he's normal! What have you deluded yourself into thinking?" The woman asked, her small cries turning into deep, desperate sobs, her eyes trained to her sons, hoping against hope that he understood what she was saying to him. "I love him."_

"_Aww, isn't that precious?" The figure spat the last word out as if it burned her to say it, flayed her to even think it. "Well, at least he'll have a good eulogy at his itty-bitty funeral –"_

"_NO!" With a strength that the woman didn't know she was capable of, she felt the invisible bonds snap as she strained against them and she fell unceremoniously to the floor. She ignored the figure's shriek of outrage and she reached forward, clutching her son's sleeve in one hand and bracing the floor with the other, she pulled her child to her, cradling him against her body, pressing her cheek to his forehead, whispering reassurances, "it's gonna be okay, just you see. It's okay, it's okay, it'll be fine, just fine…Please…Please don't hurt him, not him, not my son…"_

_The figure chuckled and stepped forward and the woman caught sight of long, black curled hair, tanned skin and dark eyes before her blood red lips parted, displaying her straight white teeth briefly as she said two words, two words that chilled the woman to the very bone, before green light filled the room and her son's weight, heavy and limp fell onto her. Lifeless. Dead. _

"_No chance."_

00000

"How goes the party?"

"You lied." Hermione said simply, not looking up at the red-head as she gazed into the fountain, her left hand loosely holding onto a bottle of beer that Natalia had passed her at some point during the night, but was now leaning against the courtyard wall, talking to a very tall man with dark brown, almost black hair.

"Me? Tell a lie? Why, I'm offended by this accusation." Lily chuckled lightly, perching herself on the edge of the fountain beside Hermione, her green eyes fixed to the bushy haired woman's face. "Not enjoying yourself?"

"I think I'd enjoy my bed more," Hermione mumbled, allowing her head to fall into her right hand, pushing some strands of hair from her face.

"You'd enjoy it a lot more if I were in it with you."

Hermione barely had time to groan before Lily giggled and stood to find James, her dainty hands pushing the purple top that she wore down her still flat stomach. "I'll see you guys later. Don't get into too much trouble now."

"Lily, trouble is my middle name." Sirius grinned, a glint in his eye as Lily rolled her own, hands on her hips as she played their little game.

"Oh, is it now?"

"Yep. I'm being Siriusly Sirius about this."

"You're always Sirius," Lily teased back before she span elegantly on her heel and wondered off to find her husband (who, incidentally, was trying to juggle with alarm clocks on the far side of the courtyard).

Sirius shook his head in amusement and sat in Lily's vacant spot, leaning back on his hands as he watched the people around him enjoy themselves at a party for a girl that they most likely didn't know. "What's up, Hermione?"

"What's up? Oh, Inigo just found out that Count Rugen is the six-fingered man who killed his father, and instead of finding out what Inigo is going to do about it, I'm sat outside in the freezing cold, with a headache, holding a beer that I'm just not going to drink, and feeling like an outsider for not enjoying myself at this party which Caitlyn worked really hard on and I'm being ungrateful!"

Sirius blinked at her a few times, "whose Inigo?" He asked, his eyebrow quirked.

"He's a pirate character in The Princess Bride … Have you never read the book?"

"Have you ever _not_ read a book?" Sirius shot back instantly, chuckling when Hermione narrowed her eyes before a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "So you're not a party animal. Don't sweat the small stuff, sweetheart." Sirius shrugged and Hermione felt a blush rise up to her cheeks at the term of endearment that slipped so easily past Sirius' lips.

"I never used to. I've never really been insecure until…" She trailed off, aware that she was saying too much too fast to the one person that she shouldn't be saying anything to.

"Until what?" He asked and Hermione turned her head away, somehow afraid that he would read her thoughts of '_since I had to get you to fall in love with me_,' '_since I've been given an insane mission_,' '_since I need to be friends with people that I need to let die in just over a year._'

"Nothing," Hermione said quietly, her eyes fixed on Caitlyn starting a conga-line, a lampshade on her head as she held a long pink tube which shot rainbow streamers out the end with a loud quaking noise, "since nothing."

A slightly awkward silence settled between them and Hermione refused to look back at him, afraid that she would just pour out her heart and soul to him and knowing what a terribly bad idea that would be. Still, that thought was shot to hell when something warm and heavy settled across her shoulders and she looked back to see that he had put his leather jacket across her, leaving him in a David Bowie T-Shirt.

"I-Thank-you."

"What did I tell you not three moments ago?" He shook his head at her in amusement, settling his arm behind her body, "don't sweat the small stuff."

Hermione looked up at him, almost shyly and when he grinned at her in his adorable, lop-sided, slightly arrogant manner, she felt her heart jump. The silence that settled between them now was almost peaceful and Hermione felt like she could finally breathe. The boom box to the right of them had just finished blaring a painfully loud rock song and the whole tone of the night seemed to have shifted as a quant melody filled the courtyard and the fairy lights thrown all over the place dimmed at once, creating a lovely atmosphere.

"Do you wanna dance?" Sirius asked and Hermione felt her head nod before he brain had even processed the questions. He stood and stretched briefly, the muscles of his body straining against the fabric of his shirt in a way that caught Hermione's eye and she looked away in embarrassment, although the little snicker she heard from him told her that he had known that she had been looking. He reached down and, with a mock-bow, offered his hand to her.

She graciously accepted, but not before threading her arms through the arms of his leather jacket, pleased to feel the heat that kissed her skin, fighting off the chill that had crept along her body. Sirius twirled her once before pulling her into his body, her chestnut curls brushing his chest on his spin and tickling the exposed skin of his arms as they tumbled down her back. He slid his fingers through hers as his other arm slid around her waist, his hand settling on the small of her back as her own hand crept up over his shoulder for both stability and to bring him closer to her.

"Do you know how to dance?" He asked her, tilting his head down so that his eyes caught hers, his lips still smiling at her.

"I do." She nodded, her own smile appearing, "but I do have a tendency to start leading."

Sirius shook his head in a way that told Hermione that he wasn't completely surprised by her admission as he pulled her both closer at the same time as lead them both into a small, easy waltz. Hermione had learnt to do this long ago, with Dean Thomas as her partner while Professor McGonagall played an old record player at the back of the classroom, giggles and groans of annoyance filling the air and the astonishment that she had felt when she'd been spun into Neville, who had led her in a nearly flawless waltz – that day's memories slammed into her as Sirius spun her once again and she couldn't help the smile of affection that pulled at her lips.

She was surprised when Sirius effortlessly gave her the lead, letting her turn them in time to the beautiful melody that was gently serenading all of the couples dancing around the courtyard. She moved her head back to look at him questioningly, her eyebrow rose even as she continued to lead them.

He shrugged one shoulder, bringing their clasped hands between their bodies, so that they were clasped to his chest, his thumb rubbing over he knuckles. "What can I say? I guess I don't mind being submissive to a beautiful woman." While Hermione found that to be incredibly cheesy, she could not for the life of her stop the blush from blooming pink on her cheeks and travelling a path down her neck.

A simple silence fell between them as they continued their dance, easing leadership to the other at certain dips rise and falls of the music, never losing their footing or their timing. Hermione rested her cheek on Sirius's shoulder, her forehead brushing his neck as he bent his head down in response, his black hair falling to create a curtain to keep them safe and hidden from the other party-goers, so it felt like it was just them and them alone as the rest of the world faded away and left them and their dance alone.

Once the song came to an end, Hermione closed her eyes briefly, giving herself just a moment to allow Sirius to surround her completely as she memorised the feel of him, the smell of him – her eyes fluttered open to catch the sight of him as she moved her head back, letting reality slam back into her like a freight train that would have knocked her flat had it not been for Sirius's strong arms around her, holding her to him, keeping her close.

"Thank-you," she said, her hand sliding up from his chest to rest against the side of his face, "for this." She clarified, thought she knew that a small thank-you would never be enough for what he had just given her. A moment where she was just…just _her_, just _Hermione_, and she wasn't worrying about the mission or about her own selfish desires to hurt the people who had hurt her in years to come. She had been given a moment to _not_ _think_ and Sirius had handed it to her.

He turned his head and kissed her palm and Hermione ignored the little shocks of warmth that danced across her skin at the touch and her own lips parted automatically. "You don't have to thank me, love." He told her honestly, although Hermione knew that Sirius didn't really understand what their little dance had truly meant to her, "the pleasure was _all_ mine."

Hermione smiled brightly, warmth radiating from her genuine expression before she stepped back, letting his arms fall away as her fingers fell from his strong line, his light stubble scratching her fingertips.

He bowed once more before he span on the heel of his boot and moved away from her, towards the centre of the party were Peter was making an idiot of himself and Hermione frowned lightly as the pang in her heart at the sight of him leaving her.

Hermione had been a fool. She realised now, with his scent on her skin and his leather jacket wrapped around her body, that she hadn't once contemplated the thought that _she_ might end up loving _him_.

She wasn't in love, she thought as her brown eyes followed Sirius's movements through the small crowd as he banged some syllabus together while James played (what she assumed was) an invisible trumpet, but she could, just as easily as she'd loved Ron.

Because he, despite all his faults, was lovable. And she, despite her misgivings, was falling.

Lily was right, Hermione thought as she sat back down on the edge of the fountain, letting her fingers trail the top of the soothing liquid, creating rainbow coloured ripples that distorted the moons image and the bright glow of the fairy-lights.

Caitlyn's party was worth it.

**A/N:** _Annnnnd, I'm not dead! Yay!_

_Okay, explanation time, although I'm sure that you're sick of these, I feel that you deserve to read it (if you want, of course…). As silly and impossible as this might seem, over the past few months I just…I stopped being a Potterhead. I truly did, I moved away from this fandom and started reading other fanfics (I have a HUGE thing for Rumbelle, from Once Upon A Time) and I stopped writing and reading Harry Potter fics (as well as stopped watching the films and reading the actual, legit books.)_

_Post-Potter depression hit me hard and I just felt myself letting go of the pure magic that is Harry Potter. I must have tried to write this chapter a good dozen times and I gave up every time because, for the first time since I found Harry Potter, I didn't believe that Hogwarts would welcome me, whether I tried to get there through pages or on the big screen and, guys, I lost it. _

_Then something magical happened. On March 15__th__ StarKid, my saving grace, uploaded A Very Potter: Senior Year. The Harry Potter feels slammed into me so hard whilst watching this roller-coaster of emotions. I laughed, cried, ugly sobbed and sang along. I realised, right then, whilst watching the Epilogue that it was okay to let go of Harry. Then I realised that I didn't (excuse my language) fucking want to. I wanted to go to Hogwarts and I wanted to go on adventures and I wanted, more than anything, to feel the magic. So I dug out my Harry Potter books (I'm re-reading the fourth one right now), found my Ravenclaw Scarf, logged onto Pottermore and caught up with some Harry Potter fics and fanarts. Then I caught up with my own._

_I know to some people reading this that will make no sense, but Harry Potter slammed into my life with a vengeance and I hope that it never, ever goes away again. But still, in a strange way, I'm kinda glad that it did leave me, just for a little while. It allowed me to rediscover the magic of Hogwarts and the morals and values of Harry Potter and for all the things about the series that I can nit-pick at, I will forever love what they have done for me because Hogwarts is my home, is all of our homes, and no matter how crap or miserable we feel, Hogwarts will always be there to revisit during those times and I'm glad that I realised that all over again, because it makes the magic so much more powerful._

_Kelly_

_Xxx_

_(Also, I teared up a little bit writing this, don't judge me. Oh, and if you haven't seen AVPSY, watch it. It captures the meaning behind Harry Potter perfectly – And it may make you sexually attracted to a spider…No judging!)_


	19. The Secret

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Harry Potter or anything affiliated with it. Sadly._

**Playing God**

**Chapter 19**

Hermione rolled her eyes when she caught sight of the courtyard the next morning, closing her apartment door behind her. There were streamers and empty cups and bottles everywhere, the banner which looked handmade and had the word 'PARTY' drawn on was half hanging off the wall, one end laying limply in the water of the fountain, which was now a muddy brown colour.

Hermione grabbed her wand from her brown book bag and, with a simple wave and incantation, she watched, pleased with herself, as everything zoomed back to where they had been before the place got trashed.

With a nod of satisfaction she put her wand back in its rightful place, hitched the jacket up in her arms and secured the bag more firmly on her shoulder before leaving her courtyard, heading to the corner of the street, a safe apparating point.

She had something that she needed to do.

She apparated to the red telephone box in London that took you down to the ministry of magic; She hadn't been there since she was seventeen and she, Harry and Ron had to break in because of that damn locket. Hermione felt her skin crawl as she looked around for any Muggles who could see her and stepped into the box gingerly, closing the red door behind her.

Her thoughts had, inadvertently since she'd stopped herself thinking about this event since she got to 1980, turned to her fifth year and the very first time that she had broken the Wizarding laws set in place. For Sirius.

She'd watched him fall back into the archway and his body not appear on the other side. She had seen Harry's reaction as he caved in on himself, the grief written across his face plain as day telling her without words what had just happened to Sirius.

While she'd not been particularly close to Harry's godfather, she had felt deep sorrow for him and even now she could feel the echoes of pain that rippled from her heart.

She punched in the number _6-2-4-4-2_ and watched as London disappeared from her view as she descended into the ground with a jittery start, heading for the main lobby of the Ministry.

"Where is Sirius Black's office?" She asked the girl at reception, glancing at the beautiful golden statue in the middle of the fountain which would one day become an icon for Death Eater's everywhere as it show cased Muggles and Muggle-born's in their 'rightful place'.

_Not if you play your part…_She shook her head at the whispering voice in her mind, instead focusing on the bitchy look that the receptionist was giving her and Hermione mentally rolled her eyes as she realised that Sirius had probably at one point in his life slept with this girl.

She thanked the girl once she had directions and left, heading for the elevator, surprised to see Owls hovering patiently, waiting inside and she almost blanched at the horrid smell.

She was so glad that they switched to bewitched paper airplane memo's she thought as she reluctantly stepped inside the elevator, eyeing the closest tawny owl to her, edging away from it.

00000

" – WELL WASN'T THAT NICE OF HER!"

"I swear, Sirius, I'll kill you."

"BUT IF THAT HAPPENS, YOU WONT HAVE A BEST FRIEND ANYMORE!"

"Funnily enough, I had realised that."

"BUT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BEST FRIEND, THEN REMUS IS GOING TO THINK THAT HE'S YOUR BEST FRIEND, AND HE'S NOT, I AM!"

"You know, I immediately regret my decision to sit in your carriage on the Hogwart's Express."

"NO YOU DON'T, POTTER, DON'T BE WRONG."

"I hate you."

"YOU LOVE ME WITH EVERY FIBRE OF YOUR BEING! YOU KNOW YOU DO!"

"Er…I'm sorry to interrupt, but is there a reason that you're shouting?"

Sirius and James both turned to the door of their office to see Hermione leaning against the door frame, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh, hey Hermione! JAMES! HERMIONE IS HERE!"

James nodded with a fake smile before his head slammed forward onto the desk and Hermione couldn't help but jump at the unexpected sound and action. "Oh, is he okay?"

"He's fine. That's what a hangover looks like, Sweetheart," Sirius told her at a normal decibel, leaning back in his chair, twirling his quill between his fingers, "what brings you here, beautiful?"

He couldn't help but smirk at the dusty hue that coloured Hermione's cheeks, even if it was just for a moment. "I brought your jacket back." She offered him the leather jacket and he reached for it, but instead by-passed it and grabbed Hermione's hand, pulling her around the desk. Her foot got caught on the leg of his desk and she stumbled forward, her hands landing heavily on his shoulders as his hands clutched her hips.

She looked down him, her eyes wide with shock while Sirius sniggered slightly, digging his fingertips into the soft flesh below her blue blouse, twining with the belt loops on her jeans.

"Awww, you're both so cute!"

Hermione blinked before pushing her hands into his broad shoulders and pushing herself back, coughing awkwardly as she rolled her eyes. "Thankyou, James."

He gave her a thumbs-up while grinning, standing up and pushing his chair away from his desk, "gonna get some coffee, leave you two lovebirds alone."

By the time the paperweight had left Sirius' hand, the door to their office was closing, James firmly on the other side.

Hermione shifted from foot-to-foot, looking around their office with slight interest, probably at the bric-a-brac of Muggle and Wizard items littered here and there.

"Hermione, I need to talk to you about something." He said, opening his draw and taking out a sky blue file; Hermione's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, her brown eyes shining with apprehension. "Please, take a seat." He patted his knee and Hermione chuckled lightly, choosing instead to perch on the edge of James' desk, her hands on either side of her hips, palms digging into the dark wood. "Do…Do you know what this is?"

"My file, I'm guessing. Although why it's in your hands, I don't know." Hermione had gone on the defence and Sirius sighed – this was going to be much harder than he had originally envisioned.

"I was worried about you, Hermione –"

"- Worried? You barely know me!"

"I realise that." Sirius said soothingly, standing and rounding his own desk, heaving his body up to sit fully on the edge of it directly opposite Hermione, swinging his legs like a child. She turned her face away from him and he noticed through her carotid artery in her neck that her heart was increasing speed – she was nervous.

"Hermione…Can you tell me why there's nothing in this file?" _please don't be in witness protection…please don't be in witness protection…_

It was something that he'd been thinking about for a while – it would explain why she had appeared from nowhere, had no paperwork – it was her chance to start anew…But that meant that something terrible had happened to her to drive her here, something that could scare her mental state, her emotions…

She took the file from him, her fingers brushing his slightly as she flipped it open – the first thing that he immediately noticed was the rustle of thick parchment and the weight that had suddenly been added to it…When it had been in his hands, it was lightweight with a single sheet of parchment inside. "Seems pretty full to me."

He snatched it from her hands like a desperate man, flipping through the many sheets that had suddenly appeared – her birth certificate, her school reports, her Hogwarts acceptance letter and her Beauxbatons one, a French Government record which held her first magic in France when she was five, her grades, her family addresses, her bank account in France, an old job reference…he frowned at the file in his hands, feeling a growl of frustration crawl up his throat – it had been practically empty not moments before…

Then he came across a police report that made the blood in his veins run cold. He felt his stomach plummet and his scalp tighten as he read the printed words very, very carefully.

"Sirius? What is it?"

Hermione sounded so far away and he paid her no attention as his eyes stayed riveted to the Auror report.

_Infiltrated the manor at 8:43pm…suspect gone, but seven victims found…_

_Five were relatively unharmed, two were suffering from signs of malnourishment and one had been extensively tortured…_

_Whip marks, burns, Cruciatus, knife wounds…One on the neck, the other on her left forearm, spelling the word 'Mudblood'…_

_Victims found in the cell were:_

_Harold Porter, 17, black eyes, green eyes, glasses…_

_Don Westly, 18, red hair, blue eyes … _

_Lu Loveitt, 16, blonde hair, blue eyes…_

_Dean Thomason, 18, dark skin, black hair, brown eyes…_

_Oliver Vanders, 80+, white hair, pale eyes…_

_and a goblin, Grabbook._

_Victim found in the parlor:_

_Hermione Jean, 18, brown hair, brown eyes…_

_Suspect is Bellatrix LeStrange…_

Sirius felt his breathing pick up speed as his eyes became unfocused, his vision blurring.

"Sirius, what's –"

"You were tortured." The words came out alarmingly calm considering Sirius' current state and Hermione's eyes widened in both shock and panic.

"What?"

He keened like an animal trapped and lunged forward, his hands circling her left wrist. She jerked back, surprised at his actions and cried out in alarm as he pulled her sleeve up, praying to see unmarred skin…

The word 'Mudblood' seemed to shimmer at him, to taunt him. He breathed out heavily before letting go of her arm and slowly standing up. He felt like he was moving through water and he barely registered Hermione's quick movement as she scooped up her file to read the sloppily written report and he didn't understand how she could move so fast when the air felt so thick…

Bellatrix LeStrange – he had never hated her as much as he did now. Before she'd been an annoyance to him, one of his family members who seemed to make it her life mission to tear him down and his beliefs, but he'd been able to handle it.

To know that she'd done this to someone that he knew – someone who he cared for…

He didn't know what to do or how to do it, all he knew is that Hermione was marked by someone who he shared his blood with and he had never been more ashamed of that fact.

"Sirius…I'm sorry, I didn't know that this would be in here." She sounded apologetic, sad. He turned his grey eyes to her and let them slide down to her neck and now he could see the thin silver line just above the hollow of her throat where a knife had been sliced into her smooth skin.

"Bellatrix…" He practically growled the name of his cousin out as he rounded his desk to the filing cabinet and practically tore open a draw, rifling through it – Suspected…That meant that they either didn't know for sure or there wasn't enough evidence to charge her.

"Do…Do you know her?"

Sirius paused his movements of trying to find Bellatrix's file, to go through it with a fine-toothed comb and pin something on her, make sure that she got locked away forever for even daring to try and touch Hermione…

"No." He practically spat the word out, "I've heard of her, seen her a couple of times, but I don't know her."

_I'm not related to her, I'm not like her, I'm different, I'm not my family…_

"You're lying." She said so matter-of-factly that Sirius frowned at her tone. "But that's okay."

Before Sirius could turn and talk to her, the door to his office creaked open and James walked in carrying two coffee mugs in his hands and carrying the other on top his unruly black head. Hermione openly laughed at his ridiculous appearance and it brought a smile, reluctant as it was, to Sirius' lips. "Look what I can do! Louisa in accounting didn't think that I could do it, but I sure proved her wrong!" James said joyfully, before crouching down before Hermione and inclining his head towards her, offering her the pink mug.

She took it joyfully, bowing her own head to him in return; a strand of her thick, curly hair falling from her shoulder as she did so and Sirius's eyes tracked it, wondering briefly what it would feel like to coil it around his finger.

"Me and Lily are having people around for dinner on Saturday evening, do you wanna join us, Hermy?" James asked her as he practically shoved the blue mug of black coffee at Sirius, who scrambled to catch it before it smashed on the ground.

"Hermy?" Hermione asked with her eyebrow raised as she cradled her drink, her head tilted as she looked at James in disapproval.

"Herms?" James tried again, but Hermione just laughed lightly and shook her head, sipping at her scalding hot drink. "'Mione?"

"Hermione is fine."

"But there are too many syllables!" He practically whined as he hiked himself up beside her, "any name that has four syllables or more should just be outlawed." He slammed the wood of the desk to make his point and Sirius rolled his eyes, feeling the anger and hatred that had boiled within him slowly seep away as it tended to do when James was being his idiotic self. It's why they worked together so well, he mused as he sighed at the bitter taste that coated his tongue from his drink; they had a way of bringing each other back from the brink, of stopping the other from doing something idiotic.

And he loved him for that.

In a completely manly way, of course.

"I'd love to." She answered James' question as she slid from her place on the desk, back to the ground. "I should go, I promised Cal that I'd meet him for lunch, so…" She trailed off as she crossed her arms over her chest, looking away from Sirius and towards the door. He tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach as she mentioned Cal Heartway, but it was hard to do that when all he wanted to do was punch him in the face. With a rock.

"Great! Lily'll send you an owl tonight – all though don't be so surprised to see one already in your mail when you get home!" James grinned as Hermione made her way to the door. "Have fun!"

"I will!" She assured him before her chocolate eyes caught his grey ones a final time before she left.

He collapsed into his chair and cradled his forehead in his hand, groaning in one part annoyance, two parts frustration and three parts anger. "Woah, what's up with you?" James asked as he drained his mug and smacked his lips together once in satisfaction.

"James mate, I need to tell you something."

00000

"What the hell, Cal!" Cal was startled awake by a loud pounding on his door. With a groan he rolled out of bed and staggered towards the door, running a hand down his face in an effort to wake himself up. Normally, living next door to Caitlyn, he was woken up at ungodly hours of the morning by her wanting to go on an adventure of some sort, but today she had let him sleep in and he had fully intended to not move until 4:00pm at the earliest.

He pulled the door open, leaning his weight onto his forearm of the doorframe as he looked down at the bushy haired woman who had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot in annoyance, her eyebrows drawn together. "Can I help you?"

He was surprised when anger flashed in her brown eyes before she shoved him back into his apartment and slammed the door shut behind her, hard enough to rattle his window. "What are you –"

"How did you know?" She hissed at him and Cal actually took a step back away from her, feeling trepidation shiver down his spine.

"How did I know what?" He narrowed his eyes as his fight-or-flight response kicked in; the rational part of his brain was telling him that she was just a small, tiny woman who couldn't hurt him...but then the other side of his brain scoffed and said, yeah, but she's Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age. He'd be an idiot to not be scared right now.

She huffed and rolled her eyes, "about Bellatrix, Cal, about what she did to me."

Cal blinked at her, having no idea what she was talking about. "I didn't tell you about it, so how do you know?"

"Why do you think I know anything?"

"Because, Cal, it's in my _file_! The file that you said _you_ would take care of!" She spat out, "and now Sirius has seen it and he's asking questions!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." He held his hands out in front of him in a peaceful gesture, "I didn't create the files, Hermione. Magic did."

Hermione didn't even respond, just raised her eyebrows in a show of annoyance and to silently tell him to continue. "The best lies have an element of truth to them. So, the magic snuck into your brain, found events, _real_ events, and then gave them a form – physical proof. I didn't snoop around that ginormous brain of yours and, trust me, if I did, I'd have most likely got lost." He shrugged a shoulder as he ran a hand through his unbound hair, pushing it away from his face. "I don't know what's in your file. It distorted them, like it changed names and dates, but nothing that wasn't already there before. You can't keep secrets here."

She scoffed before she leant back against this door, burying her face in her hands, "I think I'm keeping a pretty big secret from him."

"You can't keep it forever."

"Are you kidding?" She almost screeched as her head shot back up, "I can't tell him that I've only just been born – he'll think I'm crazy!"

"Hermione, don't you think that he's gonna be a teeny bit suspicious when his Godson befriends a girl who looks, acts, thinks, talks, just like you do?"

She stared blankly at him for a moment before she groaned in annoyance, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb. "Well, I don't see any logical reason why I should have to do it now."

"You don't have to do it now." He agreed, rubbing his chest over his loose grey T-Shirt, "but you do need to tell him. And don't wait until the last minute – if he finds out in eleven years that the woman who he's in love with has been lying to him all that time, it won't be good." He warned her before he opened his door and placed his hand gently on her back, leading her from his apartment.

"Cal – I didn't want him to know." Hermione whispered as she hung her head down and Cal felt sorrow wind gently around his heart.

"I know. I mean, I don't know because I don't know what you're talking about, but he'd find out eventually." He attempted to make her feel better, the hand on her lower back rubbing soothing circles, "but it'll be okay, Hermione. I promise."

He didn't know if it was a promise that he could keep, but it was a definitely a promise that he could try and keep.

And try he would – he would help her every step of the way.

After all, that's what friends do, right?

**A/N**_: Urgh, I hate writing filler chapters :/_

_Still, I hope you like it!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


	20. The Disappearance

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Harry Potter, no matter how much I wish that I did. _

**Playing God**

**Chapter 20**

"So the paperwork just…appeared?" Lily asked sceptically as she looked up from her own important paperwork, the fingers of her left hand curled around the warm porcelain of her bright pink mug while her right hand was clutching a pen, poised elegantly over a discharge sheet, her eyebrow raised.

"Yep. Just poof."

"Like magic?" Lily half-smirked as she shook her head, "come on, Sirius, it isn't like a huge mystery story here – maybe personnel only just found her files? You can't just assume that she had anything to do with that." She admonished quietly and Sirius huffed, flicking her hair from his eyes in a way that made a passing healer blush a light red, but never had much effect on Lily.

"I'm not saying that –"

"That's exactly what you're saying!" Lily laughed, pushing her chair away from her station and standing, running her hands down the front of her lime green scrubs, grinning when they settled on the barely there curve of her stomach. "Either ask her out and mean it or leave the poor girl alone."

"I don't want to leave her alone." Sirius said under his breath, "there's something about her…"

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes simultaneously – something that she was used to doing after spending years hanging around with her husband's idiot friends…And her husband, for that matter. "Sirius, not three weeks ago you were asking me about how to light and hover a hundred candles at once for your date with her, and now you're convinced that she's hiding some secret past? Really?"

"Hey, a lot can be revealed in three weeks!" He defended himself as he pushed down the head on the little-bobble head of the queen that her sister had given her years before, back in the time when they were actually friends. When they were actually _sisters_.

"So what if she does?" Lily shrugged, slipping the sheets of parchment into a folder and then sliding it into its designated space in the filing cabinet. The other on-call healer assistants used magic for this task, but Lily much preferred using her own two hands. It was much more satisfying and she didn't feel so lazy – just because she _could_ use magic for every little thing, didn't mean that she would. "Would it change how you feel about her?"

Sirius spluttered momentarily and, whether it was because of surprise or outrage Lily wasn't sure, but she couldn't stop the smile tugging at her lips in amusement. It wasn't that he was keeping the feelings that he held for the bushy haired girl a secret, and Lily was sure that Hermione felt something towards Sirius – whether it was interest, lust or something more Lily wasn't sure, but she was extremely excited to see how this would play out. All that Sirius needed to do was mature enough to realise that he was a one-woman kind of man and then she would watch the romance unravel before her. Hopefully before she gave birth, but she wasn't holding out on anything. "Would it?" She prompted, flipping her own vibrant red hair over her shoulder.

Sirius glared for almost a full minute before he sighed and dropped his head. "No. I mean, I know that she does have something in her past – I can't tell you what, because you don't have clearance, but that can't just be it. There has to be more…"

"Why?" Lily sighed, resting her head in the palm of her hand while her elbow balanced on the desk before her, "and why are you talking to me about it?"

"Come on, you're the closest thing to a sister that I have." He shrugged and hefted himself up to sit on the edge of the desk before Lily put her hand on his lower back and, quite elegantly, shoved him back off.

"Continue." She smiled sweetly as Sirius clamoured back to his feet, his glare trying to menacing, but Lily had to stifle a giggle. Sirius might have an aura of someone not to be messed with, but he was a teddy bear. He was as cuddly as they come, growls and all. Lily just knew that he wanted the sweet kisses and the cuddles at night – he wanted that perfect girl to spoil at Christmas and on birthdays and to kiss on the nose in the morning while she cooks breakfast, matching rings on their ring fingers…Lily knew it, she was just wanting for _Sirius_ to know it.

He'd better know it soon, because someone like Hermione, as…plain as she might look, she was a wonderful, wholesome person and she wasn't the type of girl to be single for long.

Or so Lily assumed, considering that Cal Heartway was hovering over her.

"Just some of the things that she's said and done." Sirius said non-committedly and Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Again.

"Like?" She encouraged, waving briefly at Frank Longbottom who was visiting her wife, Alice who has serious morning sickness and dehydration.

Sirius sighed and hung his head, his hand curling around the back of his neck, scratching into the nape, "Lily, she sounds like a solider. Like someone who's seen and escaped death and I hate that. She's just a young woman."

"You're a young man," Lily pointed out, "you're younger than she is, I think, and you've escaped death."

"Yeah, but if I hadn't then it would have been an accidental death – my motorbike crashed Lily, I wasn't hunted down."

"You think that's what'll happen to Hermione? That she's on the run?"

"Lily, you know that Death Eaters have _one_ target at the minute."

Lily shivered at the reminder that others saw her as inferior, that the blood that ran her veins was dirty, filthy. _Mudblood_.

"Then you'll keep her safe." Lily said with conviction, "I know you will."

"Of course I will. One of Voldy's ole' helper elves will have to work pretty hard to get to Hermione." Sirius ran a hand through his hair, nodding to himself, "and they'll think twice before touching you. Me and James have your back."

"I should hope so." Lily laughed. She felt a certain sense of pride at having helped soothe Sirius – at least for a little while.

00000

"Aw, come on, Hermione, it isn't a particularly difficult question." Natalia said, her little pink tongue winding around the ice-cream cone to catch the little melting drops that slid down the wafer.

"It is, considering that I haven't slept with either of them." Hermione pointed out, "besides, you've slept with Sirius."

Natalia scoffed before she winked at a passer-by, whose jaw dropped at the sight of the woman by her side and Hermione couldn't say that she blamed him.

With her black glossy curls cascading down her back in a tight fitting red blouse and a black pencil skirt that showed off long stretches of tanned skin on her arms, legs and neck, even Hermione's eyes had dragged down her friends figure before she mentally chastised herself.

Natalia has smirked at her though, so she was fairly sure that Natalia was aware of her betraying eyes.

When they eventually got back to their apartment complex, loaded down with shopping bags (Hermione still had no idea what Natalia's job was) and ice-cream, Hermione stopped dead at the sight before her.

The courtyard was a disaster zone and the doors to the apartments were all open, creaking on their hinges. The fighter in Hermione told her to check for survivors, but it seemed that she was frozen to the spot, her vanilla ice-cream melting down onto her hand, but she barely noticed. What happened here?

Beside her, Natalia dropped everything that she was holding, not even caring that her ice-cream fell into the bag with those shoes that she was just dying to have regardless of the insane price tag stamped on them, and she ran to her apartment, her wand in hand, held in front of her.

Hermione snapped out of her stupor and followed suit, edging her way to her own apartment, her wand whipped from her bag and in her hand before she could even blink. Despite the fact that she hadn't felt the need to defend herself in a while, it felt nice, _natural_, to go into fighter mode, to resort back to a feeling that she was incredibly familiar with. With her hand on the door she slowly pushed it open the rest of the way and she had to hold back a wince when she saw that her bookcase had been toppled over and her books were spewed all over her maroon rug. Steeling herself she searched her whole apartment and, while everything was torn down, ripped up or damaged in some way, no one was there and nothing had been taken.

She met Natalia back in the courtyard and together, they searched Remus' flat. While she felt strange being in her friend's home without their permission, she shoved the uneasiness aside and focused on her task. They wouldn't know if anything had been taken, but they could make sure that no-one was lying in wait for the werewolf.

Finding no-one, they split up; Hermione turned towards Cal's apartment while Natalia went into Steven's. Hermione instantly felt another wave of uneasiness creep up on her, this one much more terrifying.

Cal had a charm up around his apartment to stop people with ill-intentions from getting in. Only a hand full of people were able to walk through it, unaffected by the magic that played a trick on your mind – Because of the magic making the assailant believe that they'd already raided it, Cal's apartment should have been fine; should have been the only one untouched. It wasn't.

It was in shambles – his guitar was laid in pieces before her on the floor and Hermione cringed – Cal loved his guitar the same way that Hermione loved her books. His bedspread had been pulled off and ripped and his bed turned over, his bedside cabinet had been shoved to the floor and the draws roughly yanked out from the wooden framework, pieces of his life littered across the hardwood floors. Hermione felt ice build-up in her stomach as she ignored the rest of the mess and headed straight for the back of the room, to a purple throw rug.

Uncaring for the rich fabric, she pushed it to the side with her foot before falling to her knees and digging her fingers under the loose floorboard, using her full body-weight to pry it from the ground, a bead of sweat trickled down her temple as with a loud crack, the floorboard came lose, sending her reeling backwards momentarily.

To reveal an empty space. Hermione dropped the plank of wood as terror and panic gripped her heart, painfully squeezing and twisting as it felt like the world dropped out from around her. She felt faint and dizzy as one thought cartwheeled chaotically around her mind, over and over, sending her emotions and thoughts into a frenzy.

_The Mirror of Cupio is gone. _

Before Hermione could descend into a full hysterical freak-out, she heard Natalia shout her name almost frantically, and that sent her bolting from the room with her wand aloft, shoving the memory of the mirror to the back of her mind now, ready to defend her friend.

Her body slammed into the doorframe of Caitlyn and Jack's apartment, whipping around the turn only to stop short – Jack was sitting on the floor, his hand cradled to his forehead against the thick, long cut that was slowly dripping blood down the side of his face and trickling down his neck, staining his white shirt with little rusty brown and vibrant red dots.

"Are you okay?" She couldn't help but ask. Jack's green eyes slowly slid up to meet hers and Hermione was taken aback by the emotion swirling in them, the agony palpable just by the glance he sent her way.

"Caitlyn's gone." He told her, one tear escaping from his right ear, slipping down his cheek. "They took her."

"Who?" Natalia asked, her fists balled up by her sides, her eyes narrowed in a glare that would put fear into anyone's heart, "who took her, Jack?"

He clenched his eyes tight as Hermione's stomach seemed to shrivel on itself, getting tighter and tighter with unease and pain, "the Death Eaters." He practically whispered, his hand dropping from his forehead to rest against his stomach and his skin was slowly turning a dark grey colour in fear. "They want her back."

**A/N**: _And I know this is super short compared to the other chapters, but I wanted some Lily/Sirius interaction and then the little, mini surprise at the end and I didn't feel that it needed fleshing out any more than it already has been. _

_Also, the next chapter will be up on Friday. I can promise you this. I know a few of you are going "Yeah, Friday, right! I don't remember a time when you've ever uploaded regularly." And you sirs, are correct! So how can I promise Friday? _

_Because I've already written it! Right now I'm just going through it and editing and what not, hence – Friday. _

_I'm sorry for another incredibly long update, but my faithful and wonderful dog whose been by my side for the past 18 years died, then I got fired and then I got evicted at the same time that my Mom got charged with benefit fraud (which she's innocent of, by the way) and my Grumpy Gramps got diagnosed with Prostate cancer. _

_Yeah, I didn't think it was possible for so much crap to happen to one family in four/five weeks, but it did and it sucked and I cried and now I'm just…Carrying on, which is all anyone really can do. _

_Funnily enough, when I felt at my crappiest, I looked at my bookshelf (colour-coordinated. Yeah, that's how my bookshelf rolls.) I reached for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which is my favourite of the series and I've read it so many times that pages have fallen out, it's all dog-eared and the spine is starting to peel off) and it cheered my up. Immensely. So, just another thing that I have to owe to the wonderful world of Harry Potter and all that it has offered me._

_And a huge thanks for you guys for being so understanding and not hounding me for updates. You guys are seriously the best and I love you all in a non-creepy way, of course. _

_And, random question (although now that I think about it, not that random…) but which of the Harry Potter series is your favourite book and why? And which one is your least favourite and why? My least favourite was always the Half-Blood Prince because I found it to be such a tedious read compared to the wonders that is the rest of them until recently when I figured out how important that novel is in understanding Voldemort and now I don't know! Ahhh!_

_Kelly _

_xxx_


	21. The Laughter That Was No More

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harry Potter, never have and, unfortunately, I never will.

**Playing God**

**Chapter 21**

Hermione found herself an hour later pacing Natalia's apartment, running her hand almost frantically through her wild chaotic mane of curls, mumbling under her breath. The Auror's had been and gone, taken their statements and carted Jack off to St. Mungo's despite his refusals and now it was just Hermione and Natalia, trying to figure out where to go from here. Currently, Natalia was in the kitchen, searching her cupboards for her strongest drink while Hermione tried very hard not to freak out.

None of the other's had returned to the courtyard yet, and Hermione was very anxious to see Cal. How would anyone know about the mirror? Where it was?

Why would they target this apartment complex? Were they after Caitlyn specifically? Or the mirror and Caitlyn just happened to be a by-target? What did Jack mean when he said "they want her back"?

All of these questions, and more, where spinning in Hermione's mind and she didn't know how to deal with so many unanswered questions. Hermione wasn't very good at dealing with this situation – yes, she was logical and was good at finding the answers, but finding so many answers when there seemed to be more questions and they now had a human life in their hands was a little too much for her brain to handle.

Why would anyone want to take sweet, loving, hyper Caitlyn? It didn't make any sense.

She was brought out of her frantic thoughts by the sound of a bottle slamming down on the coffee table as Natalia sat astride a hard back chair having changed into jeans and a fuzzy white jumper, her arms balancing on the back as she poised a cigarette between her blood-red lips.

"I didn't know you smoked." She said softly, slowly sitting down on the edge of Natalia's white couch, her hands folded in her lap.

Natalia looked up at her sharply and Hermione had the vague sense that she'd done something horribly wrong, like Natalia thought that it was her fault that Caitlyn had been taken.

"Does it bother you?" She asked, taking the cigarette between two fingers and taking a swing of alcohol straight from the bottle without waiting for Hermione's answer.

She held the bottle out to her and Hermione shook her head. There was a tense moment and Hermione felt the air turn thick with apprehension before Natalia shrugged and took another drink before a drag of the cigarette. "Extreme circumstances and all that. She's my friend."

"Is she?" Hermione asked in slight surprise, having never seen the two girls together before. While they both were at her Moving In Party a few days ago, they weren't anywhere near each other.

"Damn right she is." Natalia said with a gleam of pride and the air of a challenge. "And now she's gone."

"She is." Hermione agreed, feeling very much like she was alone in the middle of the ocean, having no idea which direction to take whilst looking out at the vast void of nothingness that threatened to swallow her.

"We're gonna get her back."

Hermione blinked once, twice before the words sunk into her brain and registered with her. "Natalia, I would love to, but I don't –"

"Don't." Natalia cut her off, taking another drink, this one longer. "Don't pretend like you don't have anything to do with this."

"I don't –" Hermione went to retaliate, but she was cut off once again, this time by Natalia slamming the bottle down onto the coffee table, again.

"She knows your secret. _We_ know your secret!" She almost yelled and Hermione stopped breathing. This couldn't be happening. _This wasn't happening_…

"What secret?" Hermione asked around a dry mouth, remembering how two weeks ago, Cal had confessed to her that he knew her secret to, that he would help her…Now Natalia knew? How? Why?

_This wasn't happening_…

"Hermione, you're an idiot." Natalia practically hissed, standing up from her chair abruptly and she began pacing around the couch, her fists clenched at her sides. "You travelled back in time _twenty_ _goddamn_ _years_. You used a relic so powerful that it sent a ripple of magic throughout time, did you really, truly think that no-one would notice?"

Hermione didn't know what to _say_; didn't know what to _do_; didn't know what to _think_.

"Trust me, plenty of people noticed and they're all gunning for you. Only problem is, they don't have your identity, don't have a goddamn clue who you are, and that is your _only_ saving grace. Any great witch or wizard worth their name or friggin' chocolate frog card could feel the change in atmosphere practically the second you got here."

"How do you know about it? How do you know it's _me_?" Hermione asked, feeling Natalia's anger curl off her like smoke, curling around her body, making her just as angry. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't want this! I was given a mission, a _choice_ and I took it, but that didn't mean that I wanted it." Hermione fought back, annoyed and angry at Natalia's hidden accusation that it was _her_ fault that Caitlyn was taken.

She had nothing to do with this. She was getting tired of being pushed in one direction and then pulled in another, by having surprises thrown in her face and by being the last person to know anything. It was infuriating and she was fed-up. "I don't see how having Caitlyn kidnapped by Death Eaters correlates at all to my secret." She said stiffly, pulling down the long green sleeves of her blouse and she gasped in surprised when Natalia's hands were suddenly on her shoulders, pushing her down onto the sofa cushions, kneeling over her, her face close, _threatening_.

"Do you know what they'll do to her?" Natalia hissed, her eyes wide with pure anger, but Hermione could see the small glint of fear that resided there, pulling Natalia to the brink, almost ready to push her off.

"I have some idea." Hermione said quietly, reaching for her green sleeve and pushing it back up, exposing her marred forearm. _Mudblood_. No matter how many times she saw that word glaring up at her, she felt sick to her stomach.

Natalia sighed sadly when she saw it and slowly sat up, bringing Hermione up with her. "She's my partner." Natalia told her, wiping the sleeve of her jumper over her face, either wiping away tears or preparing for when the tears finally fell. Hermione felt sympathy and her own fear swirl up in her chest and she slipped her fingers between Natalia's. Natalia glanced down at them in shock before she gripped hard, needing the reassurance, the safety, the feeling that she wasn't alone. "We were in the TR in the ministry, the time room. It monitors people, students mostly, who have time turners. We were cataloguing the users and the times changed for them so that we could add on to their age – some fourteen year olds are actually sixteen now, and they have a right to know that, when…On New Year's Eve, it exploded." She sniffed and Hermione blinked in shock, her body going rigid. "That's what sent the magic through the air in the first place. Through time. Except it was different for me and Caitlyn. We could _see_ you."

"How?"

"We can see the faces of everyone who has travelled through time, regardless of the lack of records on them. You just appeared. Right there in the open, that mirror crumbling to dust before everything went haywire."

Hermione sighed heavily, chastising herself for not thinking ahead. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"I don't think now is the time to point fingers." Natalia said sharply, pulling her hand roughly from Hermione's and reaching for the glass bottle, taking another drink.

"You're the Order Member who gave the Intel of me, aren't you? The Mysterious Girl who appeared as if by magic on January 1st, you told Cal about me…" Hermione said, speaking very fast as this revelation hit her, "I thought that it was an Auror, that only they could have had access to anything about me, but I was wrong, it wasn't an Auror it was…" Hermione turned to look at Natalia who had her head leant over the back of the couch, clutching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, her eyes closed.

"I'm an unspeakable, _Hermy_. And Caitlyn's my partner." Natalia told her dryly, not moving from her position.

"No. No, Caitlyn's the deputy head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefact's office – she just promoted Arthur Weasley!"

Natalia chuckled as she reached her arm up and over the back of the sofa to the table that ran along the back of it, her eyes still closed as she reached for a pack of cigarettes, her old one resigned to the ash tray, smoke still curling from the still burning tip. "By day." She rasped, opening her eyes to light her cigarette, using the very tip of her finger to do so. If Hermione weren't so confused by what was happening, she would have been very impressed by the use of wandless magic.

"Is everybody in this apartment block leading a double life?!" Hermione only just barely resisted the urge to yell as she pressed her hands to her thighs hard enough to hurt and stood up, feeling the intense need to hit something or kick something spring forward – she hadn't felt like this since she was fourteen and Draco had pressed her buttons just so (while he had since apologised for that and she had, subsequently forgiven him, she still remember the fury stretching and winding until it _broke _and she lashed out, wanting to hurt).

"Well, Remus is a Werewolf." Natalia said, taking a long drag from the cigarette, the paper curling and lighting a bright orange, burning away to reveal the tobacco inside it, which Natalia flicked off, uncaring of where it landed. "Although, I suspect you already knew that. Steven's gay. He's at his boyfriend's right now, although he's ashamed of it." Natalia rolled her eyes at Steven's logic and Hermione couldn't help but agree.

"No-one should be ashamed of who they love." Hermione said softly and Natalia nodded once, her eyes sliding closed.

"Jack's fine though. What you see is what you get with that doofus. I think that's why Caitlyn likes him so much."

"Does Jack know? About Caitlyn?" Hermione asked, feeling her restlessness dissipate slightly.

"Only two people are supposed to know. One," she held up the thumb on her free hand, her fingers curled towards her palm, "your boss. He gives you cases, pays you and partners you up. No more. I don't think he's ever seen my face, I've certainly never seen him…Or hers. Two," she held up her index finger, "your partner. No more."

"But you just told me."

"Technically you figured it out." Natalia shrugged, "I was just telling you what your brain already knew. And hey, I know your secret, so I thought Quid Pro friggin' Quo. You hold my entire career in your hands. One word to the wrong person and it'll spread like wildfire and my job is over. I'm giving you that."

"Why?" Hermione asked, needing to know the answer.

"Because I trust you." Those words hurt Hermione more than anything that Natalia could have said, in the best way. She was trusted in this time…Even if it was by one person, it was enough. For now. She was making a difference, she was doing something right. "And I need your help to save Caitlyn."

"I still don't see how Caitlyn being captured and me have any correlation." Hermione tentatively said, "if you only know my identity by a fluke, and no-one knows about Caitlyn's profession, then why take her? I don't understand."

It hurt her to admit that she didn't understand something…To not know something is easier, because she can learn it, but to not _understand_…that was a whole new level of failure for Hermione and she couldn't afford to fail. Not this time. Many things about Hermione had changed since she was a child, but her Boggart was not one of them.

"They want Caitlyn because she pissed them off."

"And how did Caitlyn manage that?" Hermione didn't even think that it was possible to hate Caitlyn, that it was just universally impossible.

Natalia sighed sadly, hanging her head, her shoulders hunched as she practically cradled the glass bottle. "Because she used to be one."

00000

"Well, well, well…Isn't this interesting?"

Caitlyn glared into the darkness, struggling against the bonds around her wrist and ankles, tilting the chair that she was tied to back onto two legs in an attempt to squirm free, her toes pressing against the stone floor, freezing cold.

"You know, we've been looking for you for a long time. You did a good job of running from us, went to live with a Mudblood…Pathetic." The figure spat and Caitlyn struggled even harder, feeling the ropes burn into her skin, leaving raw marks. "But that's okay. You made your choice on how you want to live your life, and I commend you for it."

Caitlyn tried to talk, to insult, to yell, but the rag that was shoved into her mouth and the gag that was tied around her jaw stopped her, just letting a few choice sounds escape. There was the tell-tale sound of shoes moving across the stone floor and Caitlyn felt the hairs on her body stand on end as the figure was stood behind her and Caitlyn's fight or flight response kicked in.

Except she couldn't do any of those things, being held immobile, tied to a chair in the middle of a dark, cold, stone room. "Now, I'm gonna say this once and I demand a straight answer. Someone has time jumped an exceeding amount of time. We went to your home for you, but luckily, one of my people found a mirror; one of legend that can grant any wish to the user and has ultimate power. And it was hidden in _your_ floorboards." The words were cold, calculated and whispered into the room, seemingly sliding across Caitlyn's bare skin, making her muscles tense. "Do you know who it it?"

Caitlyn closed her eye and a single tear escaped, running down her cheek and stinging the cut that she had on her cheek before she shook her head as best she could, her blonde chaotic curls brushing her shoulders. "No?" The figure asked, and Caitlyn nodded. "I think that you're lying. I was originally just ordered to kill you for defying the Dark Lord, but I have a better idea."

Caitlyn felt her scalp tighten as goosebumps rippled across her skin and she repressed a sob, fear coiling tight in her stomach, making her dizzy and uneasy.

"I think that you either know someone who knows who it is, or you know who it will be, or even who it actually is."

She has never regretted anything more in her life than sneaking into Cal's apartment and finding that mirror. Never had she been so annoyed at herself for not thinking to hide that mirror better. If she could have found it in Cal's apartment easily enough, of course they'd be able to find it in her own home.

But she'd gotten to daring, had thought that she was safe, hidden. She had meant to give the mirror back, had only taken it to run some tests on, to assure herself that this was the mirror that she had seen briefly in the time capsule in the TR with Natalia, then she would confront Cal, tell him that she knew and they could all work together on protecting and helping Hermione.

She never meant for this to happen. She never meant for any of this to happen.

"Now, I could use Veritaserum. It's effective and useful…But it's not as much fun."

On the last word, a metallic clatter filled the room before a metal nail hovered over the back of her hand, the point pressing against her skin.

"I said I would ask once…But that was a lie. What do you know?"

With a rough, harsh blast of magic, the gag was ripped from her skin and Caitlyn spat the rag out onto the ground, panting harshly as she began to panic, struggling against the ropes harder and more desperately, her fingernails scrabbling to find purchase on the smooth wood. "I don't know anything!" She gasped out as the nail pressed more incessantly to her skin, leaving a little indent, before a small bead of red blood welled up and slid down her skin and her wrist, "I swear!"

_I will take this to my grave. Mark my words; you'll know nothing from me…_

With a soft chuckle a blast of magic sent the nail moving and Caitlyn let out a guttural scream as the nail slammed itself through her hand and into the wood below, impaling her flesh onto the pine.

"I can see that you're not laughing anymore." The voice said again as the nail was ripped from her skin to hover in front of her eye, dangerously close and nearly bursting a tear as it spilled over a tear duct, her pupils dilating in pure fear. "Good."

**A/N:** _Ha! Friday! I promised and for the first time I actually managed to deliver! This hardly ever happens, I feel that I need to pat myself on the back for this :)_

_Okay, so Natalia and Caitlyn – that was the backstory that I had always intended for them, but I don't think it's played out right…That being said, I needed to get it out there because I want you guys to understand that now Hermione is under a threat – that she's in danger, so I explained this a few chapters earlier than I intended to. If something doesn't make sense (aside from the obvious – wait, what? That I'm sure many of you may be experiencing, PM me and I'll let you know if I've actually considered that, and if I haven't, then I'll definitely start thinking about it!)_

_Hope you like it!_

_Kelly_

_xxx_


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